The encyclopedia · Strategy & Leadership · Financial decision · 2020
Mercury bought Bauer Australia and killed eight glossies in four days
The sale completed mid-July 2020; on July 21, Harper's Bazaar, Elle, InStyle and five more were dead — 240 jobs gone since April.
Bauer Media Australia · Mercury Capital · 2020-07-21
What happened
Bauer Media Group had bought Australia's magazine empire — once Australian Consolidated Press — for $525M in 2012. Eight years later, with advertising in freefall under the pandemic, it sold the whole Australian and New Zealand operation to Sydney private equity firm Mercury Capital in July 2020 for less than $50M. Days after the sale closed, the new owner acted.
On July 21, 2020, Mercury permanently shut eight titles that Bauer had suspended in May as a pause: Harper's Bazaar, Elle, InStyle, Men's Health, Women's Health, Good Health, NW and OK!. Forty more staff were made redundant on top of the 200-plus already gone since April. Bauer's ANZ chief Brendon Hill said reinstatement had always depended on the ad market bouncing back — and it had not.
The sequence had been brutal even before the sale: 140 staff cut in April, the New Zealand office shut under lockdown, and — days before the May suspensions — Bauer had spent $40M buying Seven West Media's Pacific Magazines. Media commentator Tim Burrowes said the pandemic had 'ripped the heart out of magazine publishing in Australia forever.'
Why it happened
- Fashion and celebrity glossies lived on ads and transit distribution; lockdown removed both at once, and a 'temporary pause' became permanent closure under a new owner.
- The distressed sale moved the decision to private equity, whose first act was to cut what had been suspended rather than fund a relaunch.
- Buying Pacific Magazines for $40M days before suspending flagship titles showed a group reacting to collapse with deals instead of cash.
The lesson
A 'temporary pause' in a distressed sale is the new owner's shortlist — the titles suspended first are the ones cut first.
Aftermath
Mercury kept the surviving titles and later revived some suspended brands in rebuilt form. New Zealand reopened as restrictions eased; Australia's magazine industry never recovered its old shape.
Sources
- Mercury Capital axes eight former Bauer magazines, including Harper's Bazaar, Elle and Men's Health — The Guardian (Jul 21, 2020)
- Bauer Media Australia axes eight titles — Sprinter (Jul 23, 2020)
spotted an error? The club wants to know.
More like this
Bauer shut its German digital arm — 160 jobs, and Grazia and Heat teams hit in the UK
GQ Australia outlived its rivals — then traded 22 years of print for a website
Dolly raised Miranda Kerr and a generation — Bauer cut the print edition at 46
Somewhere, someone solved the problem this company failed at. 2nd Opinion →
Comments · 0
Sign in to join the comments.