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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. 

Woman’s Day’s editorial team will be ‘integrated; with Bauer’s other women’s celebrity entertainment titles

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”.

Fiona Connolly: ‘The changes simply make 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.

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