Bauer Media Slated For Operation Streamline And Magazine Closures

Bauer Media is in line for a shakeup, if reports from the Australian Financial Review are anything to go by, with an address to staff from CEO Nick Chan apparently revealing that the company will shed a few mags in order to streamline operations.

Per reports, Chan addressed staff on Monday in a company-wide meeting, where he discussed the necessity for the revenue model to change, as well as slating a new “viability audit” to reassess poor-performing titles.

According to AFR, this audit is already underway, with announcements of magazine closures by the end of the year predicted.

A spokesperson for Bauer Media told B&T there have been no announcements on any closures and that the company will not be commenting further, citing staff as first priority in detailing any news.

Chan is believed to have nailed down five “core categories” where the business should channel its energy, which – per sources – come under the umbrellas of fashion/lifestyle, home, food, celebrity/beauty and auto.

Looking to the most recent AMAA circulation figures, the Bauer titles within these categories that are in the most strife are COSMOPOLITAN, which has seen drops from the 70,000 mark to just over 40,000 year-on-year, while other young female title Dolly also slipped by 26 per cent.

Bauer’s iconic Cleo magazine announced its closure back in January this year.

Recipes+ fell 27.5 per cent to 66,512, and Homes+ dropped 20.2 per cent to 40,235, while celeb titles OK! and NW wavered, sliding 21.5 per cent to 48,181 and 18.7 per cent to 53,496, respectively.

Outside of this particular realm in, as AFR describes it, the non-core sector, is also where some employees might be experiencing some nervousness regarding the future of their titles, including the likes of Mother and Baby, Good Health, Money Magazine and the Take 5 and That’s Life titles.

Speaking to B&T on the circulation figures, Chan admitted that “selling magazines is still the hardest way to sell content”.

“There’s still a healthy appetite for print and we just have to find a different way to execute. Overall, it’s a continuation of a decline, and people are consuming their news and information in very different ways now.

“The mobile phone is taking up a lot of people’s time, and media as such is being dispersed amongst that time. We are seeing across all traditional media lower levels of audience. And we’re not immune to that.”

It follows the resignation of Marina Go, publisher of Elle, Cosmo and Harper’s BAZAAR, and publisher of Australian Women’s Weekly, Woman’s Day, Yours and Good Health publisher Matt Dominello in recent weeks.

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