Dolly raised Miranda Kerr and a generation — Bauer cut the print edition at 46

Dolly launched in 1970 and became Australia's teen magazine for generations: celebrity news, fashion, big-sister advice and the Dolly Doctor health column. It ran model searches that found Miranda Kerr at thirteen in 1997, and it made journalists — Lisa Wilkinson became its youngest-ever editor at 21 and stayed seven years. 'A magazine that for 46 years was a bible to so many generations of young Aussie women,' she would write when it ended.

The end came in two steps. In January 2016, as circulation fell almost 20 per cent to 40,500 copies, Dolly moved from monthly to six issues a year; the same month Bauer closed Cleo and merged the two magazines' staff to cut costs. Then on November 30, 2016, Bauer announced the print edition was finished: 'no longer feasible,' said chief executive Nick Chan. The December 5 issue was billed as a collectors' edition — the last.

Bauer's arithmetic was blunt: more than 90 per cent of Dolly's 14-to-17-year-old audience now interacted with the brand via smartphones, and November had just been the biggest month for online traffic in the magazine's history, an estimated 1.2 million sessions. The brand would continue as Dolly.com.au with the Dolly Doctor intact; a number of staff were affected, with all full-timers offered other positions in the company.