Bauer to make 70 staff redundant as it suspends print titles
Bauer Media, the publisher of magazines including TV Week, The Australian Women’s Weekly, NW and Take 5, will make 70 staff redundant.
The publisher said the action was necessary as it grapples with decreased advertising revenue in the face of COVID-19.
Bauer Media is struggling in the COVID-19 pandemic
In addition to the 70 redundancies, a similar number of additional staff will be stood down.
oh god we’re already up to COVID-109!
Oh no. What a nightmare that would be.
I have lost all sense of time, so apologies for the error. It was definitely mine, not Brendon’s, and I can assure you that fortunately/ unfortunately, we’re still in the midst of COVID-19, not COVID-109.
Thanks,
Vivienne – Mumbrella
I always knew Bauer would be bad news for the Australian magazine industry. They just don’t care about local culture and local icons. Sad that titles that meant so much to the public and to their loyal staff will now be quietly killed off after 3 month “suspensions”. Even sadder for the Pacific Magazines staff who never wanted to work for Bauer and had that choice made for them in horrible circumstances.
“Sad that titles that meant so much to the public and to their loyal staff will now be quietly killed off after 3 month “suspensions”.
Yep. Those titles meant so much to the public that they stopped buying them.
“Even sadder for the Pacific Magazines staff who never wanted to work for Bauer and had that choice made for them in horrible circumstances.”
Hardly Bauer’s fault that PacMags ended up getting sold. I’d have a quick look at the disaster that is Seven West Media before pointing fingers.
You really think that iconic local brands like Cleo (Rest In Peace) and NW (rest in suspension followed but quiet burial) were really treated right before they were shafted? What a joke! Both could have been developed into major digital brands.
Now To Love is an industry-wide joke!
Cleo could have been all over TV and other brand extensions. But the company just didn’t know the value of those legendary names in Australia and simply didn’t care.
There is no love for SWM among the Pacific staff, who have been royally done over. Pacific, however, was a great company to work for before the betrayal. Those great PacMags employees deserved so much better. The millions off people who still buy magazines deserve better.
Right there with you.. Now to Love is a joke.. and so many of their titles could have been adapted to the changing consumer.. except this was never done or was done poorly..
A lot of them have lost their way though… they have lost touch with readers who do love them and aren’t appealing or moving with the times… instead of axing.. maybe they should be looking at their content…
Have to say, they lasted as long as they could throughout this ordeal, though I heard some allowances were cut back a while ago. Credits due. Heard advertising revenue was in a world of pain…
Although the timing is a bit fishy, right before the Pac merger finalising. Could have been a good time to trim some fat for the excess they paid for Pac.
Covid is an excuse for Bauer to face the music that’s been playing for 5 years or more. Bauer never did the dillegence they should have when buying ACP from NEC for $530m. Whoever was in charge then bought a lemon, most likely because Bauer thought they could also buy radio assets that matched thier trash mags. It turned out those radio assets were never for sale, but if they were then the deals would have been even worse for Bauer so they actually dodged a bullet on the radio side but ended up paying close to 6x what they should have for magazines. It scares me that peoples livelihoods are in the hands of others with so little commercial sense and all the while being advised on the pulse of Australians by magazine editors who guage that pulse on the occasional Dorris or Karen returning a survey form.
Radio was an option and the deal was ready to be executed, but the Bauer’s chose to head home and the deal fell through.
Now that radio station is no longer at the bottom of the pile and price tag isn’t as cheap.
I’d like to know if TV Week is going to be one of the titles to be axed – I’ve been collecting it for 20 years and haven’t missed an issue!
According to the Sydney Morning Herald the magazines they are ‘pausing’ include Harper’s Bazaar, Elle, OK! and NW.
Wonder if any of them will be ever be unpaused.
Does anyone else ever wonder why – even by the standards of a public an anonymous forum – such a large proportion of Mumbrella comments are so savage? Based on the tone of the observations, one forms the impression that the industry must be characterised by people who are embittered, angry, discontented…
I’ve often wondered what the relationship of all this rage and discontent is to the industry’s widely discussed mental health worries.
Don’t see their deal with Seven going ahead
I am someone who has been made redundant by the Pacific/Bauer merger, my last day is Thursday 30th April. As much I am disappointed at losing my position with Pacific I am also glad that I can now move on after nearly 12 months of uncertainty with is Pacific selling to anyone who would buy the mag business – the rumours were constant !! Yes we were lied to from Pacific management and yes I could have left before being made redundant but l loved my job and the people I worked with, I was proud to be part and the great product we produced. The titles mentioned that will possibly be paused are all Bauer but I am sure over the next few months several current Pacific titles will also disappear. I am sad that due to Covid19 we will not be able to have a proper farewell and many who like myself are now forced to move on and who I can guarantee that if like myself had the chance to be part of the move to Bauer would be there ready and willing. It doesn’t matter any more that Bauer have purchased Pacific as it obvious that if someone didn’t buy it Seven West would possibly have closed down the magazines at some time in the future, as it was obvious the new management did not want magazines. I am glad that at least some titles will survive because of Bauer and that some people still have jobs, I look forward to my next chapter hopefully away from this industry – as yes I am tired of listening about the doom and gloom of print media !!
And being stood down and ‘paused’ means you are completely unpaid during the ‘pausing’ period and the pause has no time limit. You do not get back pay when or if you reach a ‘unpause’. You accrue annual leave during a pause [thumbs up and eye roll] and like you can look for work with non direct conflict. It’s tough environment