Ita Buttrose: I’m a magazine junkie
Magazine legend Ita Buttrose has just been named Australian of the Year. She speaks to Encore about the launch of Elle magazine, the second installment of Paper Giants and the future of tablet publishing.
You’ve just been named the 2013 Australian of the year. How does that feel?
It feels pretty good actually. It was a big surprise when the PM read out my name because I was there with many other distinguished Australians who have all contributed in so many ways to shaping the nation. You’re in very good company when you’re a finalist in the Australian of the Year and you think, that’s my name. Goodness. So it was very exciting and quite a moving time for me. Somebody said to me ‘you looked a bit emotional’ and I said ‘well, it is an emotional moment to be called Australian of the year’.
You’ve also just signed up to be one of Priceline’s ‘health sisters’. What made you get involved with the campaign?
Congrats to Ita on her award, however, I’ve worked in the OZ magazine market for 15 years and I’ve never known it so dire. The only magazines that seem even remotely viable anymore are licenses from overseas (see Elle). That means publishes can run them on the smell of an oily rag, simply employ a sub to Australianise the language and appoint a befuddled editor who thinks they’ve created this great work of genius when all they really did was change the cover price to Aussie dollars. Sure, they’re are exceptions – Women’s Weekly a case in point – but to think the industry is “healthy” is somewhat deluded for mine.