Bauer Media to axe 11 jobs across Woman’s Day, NW and OK
Eleven jobs are under threat at Bauer Media as Australia’s biggest magazine publisher plans to restructure three celebrity and entertainment titles.
The new structure will integrate editorial teams across Woman’s Day, NW and OK Magazine, a Bauer spokesperson confirmed to Mumbrella this morning.
Staff were reportedly pulled into a meeting last week to be told that Woman’s Day, OK Magazine and NW would be reorganised into a ‘centralised’ editorial model, potentially resulting in job losses across editorial and production.
A Bauer Media spokesman confirmed the changes to Mumbrella, saying: “The executive team remain focused on ensuring Bauer takes advantage of all market opportunities and optimises its internal efforts through a collaborative workforce, improve efficiencies and ways of working across titles.
“This sees Bauer reshape its Women’s Celebrity Entertainment category. In line with common industry practices, the new structure will integrate editorial teams across Woman’s Day, NW and OK. This includes news, features, entertainment writers, art, subs, pictures and lifestyle content.
“We want to reassure our readers that our well-loved brands will not change, neither will the editorships of each title. Within the restructure, most roles will remain as is or new roles will be created. There will be 11 roles impacted by the change, which Bauer will look to deploy across the broader business. Consultation with employees started late last week.
“Bauer Media is looking forward to delivering further value and entertainment for its readers and building a stronger future for the business.”
Woman’s Day editor Fiona Connolly will lead the three titles in the new ‘Women’s Celebrity Entertainment’ division as editor-in-chief. She told The Daily Telegraph that, “content sharing and planning and reducing duplication… simply makes sense”.
She added: “Yes there will be a small number of roles impacted, but we are undergoing these changes with a great deal of consultation with the three teams and a clear vision for the future commercially, and crucially, with respect for our readers.”
The changes will start from July 2.
The news comes just weeks after the beleaguered media giant acquired three new titles from News Corp – Inside Out, Country Style and Homelife.com.au – despite the recently-appointed CEO Paul Dykzeul telling Mumbrella that further potential closures and redundancies were on the horizon.
Last year, the company axed a raft of titles, including, Men’s Style, Recipes+ and Homes+, Myer Emporium and Weight Watchers’ custom magazine.
Bauer Media also recently lost a major defamation case to Rebel Wilson, although the company’s payout to the Hollywood star was significantly slashed from $4.5m to $600,000.
Oh that’s sad, but yet again, unsurprising. How much more can you slash budgets before it becomes difficult to print magazines?
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Woman’s Day editor Fiona Connolly told The Daily Telegraph that, “content sharing and planning and reducing duplication… simply makes sense”. Quite the irony considering Bauer’s trouble with Rebel – and where it all started. I hope the peeps at Bauer HQ in Hamburg are watching. A promotion? Ridiculous.
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Nothing a few paid Mumbrella articles can’t fix, I’m sure. Just remember to disable the comment form!
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Anyone still at a mag publisher should treat every day like their last…
Sorry, but if you have that little foresight in your career, then unfortunately you deserve that redundancy!
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Hi Gonzo the Great,
When companies are paying for content on Mumbrella they have the option to allow (or disallow) comments. This does not spare them from being subject to news stories such as this, or comments on the news story, including yours.
The comments on the paid article (which is very clearly marked as such) didn’t make it through as the form should not have been live. The glitch has now been rectified.
As you can see, commenters are more than welcome to comment on this article.
Thanks,
Vivienne – Mumbrella
Thanks for explaining, Viviene.
I’m just a little miffed, since I spent hours crafting some hilariously insightful comments on that highly inaccurate Bauer sponsored article that no one will ever get to read. Such a shame! Oh well.
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No one “deserves a redundancy” Harsh But Fair – I’ll take a wild stab: you work in HR?
Have you thought about the disruption to people’s lives here who have mortgages and bills to pay, given little support and false opportunities of “redeployment”?
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If you actively choose to work in a declining industry like the print game in 2018, then you know the risks going in.
If you are a dinosaur still working in the print game in 2018, you knew the risks years ago, probably should have upskilled in 2010, etc.
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I’m surprised those magazines even exist anymore considering most of what they report on is completely fabricated and the images of females and their bodies are totally photoshopped. That is the kind of tabloid fuckery that gives kids eating disorders and female bad self image issues. They should be banned.
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These so called ‘magazines’ are just rubbish promoting body issues in females. Get rid of them completely.
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Editor in chief? Please. Is that code for we can’t afford a new publisher for weeklies? I guess Bauer need to cut costs to pay Rebel’s pay out. And on what magazine did that trouble all start? You really can’t make this stuff up. Bauer needs new blood and a modicum of integrity. STAT!
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Agree with you there 100%! Speaking of Bauer needing new blood, why are all their management team mostly male? This is cray cray as most of their employees are female. It’s almost like they’ve got an aversion to hiring females in management roles.
Just saying…
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There are so many things wrong with this article, and Bauer Media Australia in general, that I hardly know where to begin.
Firstly, Bauer states that they are “integrating” these titles “in line with common industry practices”. Well, given that you can’t even give a magazines away nowadays, I suppose this kind of integration IS now a standard industry practice. Bauer also claims that “our well-loved brands will not change”. But their well-loved brands — or should I say once-well-loved brands (but hardly for the right reasons) — have already changed. They changed the moment the geniuses at Bauer decided to re-brand all their digital content under the “to Love” branding — which is still a pitifully wretched hodgepodge compared to their traditional print offerings. One wonders if the antiquated legacy Bauer print mavens had a hand in this decision. Was it a deliberate tactic to rob digital of its naturally ascendant tendency to supersede print. But then this is what Bauer Media Australia is all about now: preserving the past at any cost, especially for personal gain. “We all know this is a dying industry, so let’s just make the very most of it while we can”, seems to be the prevailing attitude. “And if anyone or anything comes along to threaten the faded prestige of our beloved magazine publishing industry, and those who profit from it, we’ll simply sweep them away and ignore them for as long as possible”. Bauer, unfortunately, is still APC at heart. The putrid stench of the good old Packer days still lingers within the halls of 54 Park, that asbestos-laden decrepit old building. I suppose all we can do now is wait until all the senior execs (mostly men) have lined their pockets to their hearts content, at least enough so that they can then go into politics. I just pray that all the employees working under them (mostly women) will still be able to find jobs that haven’t yet been replaced by robots.
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Nick Chan ‘departed’ after the Rebel Wilson defamation verdict was handed down. Jayne Ferguson, the publisher of weeklies, was the next to leave. So why are the editors of the titles responsible still employed? Even promoted? I remember the days when you lived by the sword and died by the sword. Not for editors who produce nothing but creative writing it seems. Bauer has a serious PR problem that not even a formidable spin doctor could fix. The company really does need new blood and a new way of thinking. They could start with trustworthy editors and products and a true digital alignment. Now to Love? What even is that?
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Woman’s Day has been in decline for the past five years or more – I think they must have retrenched most of their writers, as it is now just a rehash of overseas news stories. No interviews with locals at all! It’s obvious the staff have been cut at the expense of quality… but the price keeps going up. No wonder sales are declining… sorry Bauer, but readers are just not that stupid.
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Yep – another article about Bauer and a pointless comment from Zara #getoverit
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I think what you’ve said has hit right on the nail. I’d say a company such as Bauer suffers from diversity debt.
Like do they suck employees over the age of 35 into a vaccum? Or why are so many employees reside in either the Eastern suburbs, North Shore or the Inner West? And let’s not start with the lack of cultural diversity…
For companies like Bauer to innovate, not only do they need new people, but people who offer different skills set. That’s how companies thrive. The longer this issue isn’t addressed, the more stagnant the Bauer business.
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Commenting that someone’s comment is pointless without detailing why you believe it is pointless is pretty pointless. In fact, of all the comments on this article, I believe yours to be the most pointless.
Sounds like you’re just trying to dissuade people from expressing their opinion? You must work at Bauer.
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@Johnny-B-Good: The part that I find intriguing is that you notice whenever I comment on articles full stop.
Don’t you have work to do up in Bauer? (I presume you work there since that other comment you made) Or are you getting by with doing minimal work as possible? If you fall in either or both of these categories, then I suggest you suck it up and realise that people will express their opinions about something – whether good or bad. So get use to it.
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As a former Bauer employee who worked for one of those 3 mags this is heartbreaking to hear. We slogged our guts out every week and to hear about it all disappearing is devastating.
I understand the reasoning behind it, but I don’t care. It’s just sad to know good people are now unemployed. The writing was on the wall admittedly, but it doesn’t make it any easier.
The unfortunate truth is mags are/used to be so much fun to work on and I know that kept a lot of women there.
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Opinion or comment?
While I don’t work at Bauer its clear that Zara has been burnt at some stage by them, and continues to hold a grudge. Maybe you lost your job at Bauer because you were unable to distinguish the difference between a comment and and an opinion…
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Please enlighten us.
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