Bauer Media Group set to merge Cleo and Dolly teams
Markson
Dunk
Bauer Media Group has told staff it plans to merge the teams on magazines Cleo and Dolly in a move which signals that the titles’ editors Sharri Markson and Tiffany Dunk will be asked to fight for a single editor-in-chief position.
The company is currently reviewing the two products and is discussing with staff a proposal to bring the teams behind Cleo and Dolly together into a “young women’s lifestyles” division.
Markson joined Bauer team at the end of last year and relaunched Cleo with less sexual content in April.
Dunk has been in her role for nearly four years.
A Bauer spokesperson told Mumbrella that if the merger of the teams were to go ahead the products themselves would not be impacted.
Matthew Stanton, CEO Bauer Media, said in a statement: “Cleo and Dolly are quickly evolving to meet the needs of a target audience which is itself rapidly changing. In such a dynamic environment, it makes sense to bring the staff creating these young women’s lifestyle titles together. The single publishing unit enables us to tap the synergies and expertise between the mastheads to further enhance the reach and relevance of these two much-loved Australian magazine brands.”
The statement from Bauer said: “An editor-in-chief would be responsible for both titles, with other team members either working directly on the brand or where possible across the two brands.”
The Bauer spokesperson declined to comment on the question of Dunk and Markson competing for a single role.
Markson’s background is mainly in hard news including stints with Seven in Sydney and the Sunday Telegraph. Dunk’s experience includes TV Week and NW magazine.
Cleo’s circulation decreased by 17.4 per cent in the last numbers released by the Audit Burea of Circulations despite Markson overseeing a redesign of the title.
Bauer has not revealed specifics on how the plan would work if it were to go ahead, however the Bauer spokesperson suggested production and picture editing would become shared roles across the two titles.
Bauer Media aligned its motoring titles in August, with the titles joining the Bauer Trader group and relocating from Sydney to Melbourne.
And in July, the publisher’s real life titles were merged under Paul Merrill.
Miranda Ward worked for Mumbrella from 2013 to 2017, eventually becoming deputy editor. Miranda joined Mumbrella in September 2013 from Sky News.
Linkedin
Tiffany Dunk is one of the best in the business. If it does came down to both fighting for a single role, it surely has to be hers.
User ID not verified.
So the remaining staff will have to do double the work for the same pay…?
User ID not verified.
To Bauer’s credit, it’s doing everything it possibly can to tell the market, advertisers and its audiences that the business is absolutely up sh#t creek….
User ID not verified.
I used to enjoy reading Cleo i seen it as more an older teenage/ young adult hood magazine. Dolly is for young teenage girls.
The past few issues of cleo ive been dissapointed it, now this explains why. I tHink this decision is very poor judgement by Bauer.
User ID not verified.
If a restaurant is failing does it cheapen the ingredients and cut back on wait staff? If an airline has to reduce costs does it cut the pilots and engineers? If a magazine company is heading southwards does it cut all the people that make its content and basically hasten the decline? Seems an odd business model to me. Sure, cut costs – cut back paper stock, reduce print runs, cull third-party staff, use buy-in images etc. But to reduce the journalists – your very life blood – seems a disastrous business model to me.
User ID not verified.
Sadly, the shape of things to come. They’ve just done it with Cosmo and Cosmo Brides.
Reduce journalists? Looked at Fairfax, lately? It is shedding 9000, didn’t it? The thing that Bauer doesn’t get, and the Packers did, is that staff working on those magazines are very local to their mastheads and this is just a recipe for bland content which is the last thing they need The view is that magazines have been too slow to move to the internet but what resources are really being put into this area?
User ID not verified.