Bauer CEO Brendon Hill today addressed for the first time the staff of the publishing business combined with Pacific Magazines, formerly of Seven West Media.
In a Zoom address, he told staff the two great businesses create a new, stronger media company.
Bauer paid $40 million for the Pacific titles. The deal creates a multi-platform publishing portfolio of 43 Australian magazine brands including The Australian Women’s Weekly, New Idea, Better Homes & Gardens and Woman’s Day.
Hill says Bauer is committed to every brand in the portfolio.
"We have some exciting plans and we’re getting out in the market next week to excite the trade about what our significant growth means to them," he told the meeting.
"We can now leverage our new, larger and more meaningful audiences to market new products and services and also use it to market new and innovative brand extensions."
He will be releasing more details of Bauer's strategy in the coming weeks.
In the meantime, a selection of titles will be put on hold, including NW and OK! due to the downturn in travel. The titles rely heavily on airports.
Other titles on pause: Harper's Bazaar, Elle, Instyle, Men’s Health, Women’s Health, Good Health.
"It is important to address that our intention is to absolutely reinstate these titles, and get our team members back to work, as soon as it’s possible," says Hill.
"Our aim is to return to align with on-sale September timings and we are working closely with the brands team to ensure we are building the commercial pipeline and bringing back key staff for client conversations.
"In the meantime, although print issues are paused, brands will continue online and our focus will be to deliver quality digital content that we know our audiences love."
The new publishing leadership structure:
- Shane Sutton - Group publisher of homes
- Fiona Connolly - Group publisher across weeklies
- Susie Loxton has joined us and will head up the Luxury Group
- Nicole Byers’ role has been extended and will now oversee Australian Women’s Weekly, Country Style and Better Homes & Gardens
Digital brand and operations: remains the same:
- Fiona Baker – Digital Director Entertainment and Parenting
- Lorna Gray- Digital Director Beauty, Luxury and Health
- Amber Manto – Digital Director, Homes and FoodD
- Dean Burge - Head of Product/Technology
- Neil Donnelly - Head of Digital Ad Ops
- Tessa Rex - Director Video & Audio
- Annabel Hodges - Director Audiences
"From a publishing perspective, we will continue to look at where we distribute and where new opportunities lie both in retail and digital edition distribution," he says.
"We have had some very strong results for titles so there is consumer demand there. We also need to be able to move more quickly on trends on one-shots or spin-offs."
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