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Bauer Media sells magazine business

TV Week, New Idea, Woman's Day & Women's Weekly part of sale to Sydney-based private equity firm Mercury Capital.

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Magazines including TV Week, New Idea, Woman’s Day and the Women’s Weekly have been sold as Bauer Media sells its entire publishing arm to Sydney-based private equity firm Mercury Capital.

The Australian Financial Review reports the figure is believed to be less than $50 million.

The German family-owned publisher entered the Australian market in 2012 via a $525 million acquisition of ACP Magazines from Nine in 2012.

Bauer recently purchased Pacific Magazines for $40m from Seven West Media, then announced major redundancies and the closure of some titles, having recently closed down its New Zealand operations without notice.

Mercury CapitalCEO Brendon Hill said,“With new ownership and our bolstered portfolio, we have unparalleled opportunities to connect with more Australians than ever before and continue our strategy of digital growth and innovation.

“We have increased flexibility to diversify revenue streams and grow and innovate across our multi-platform offerings. Additionally, we are well placed to invest in the key drivers of future success – high-quality content and digital development which is good for us, our audiences, clients and the Australian industry as a whole.”

The sale is subject to regulatory approval and expected to be complete in mid-July, with Mercury Capital to announce a rebrand in coming months.

It comes at a time when the TV Week Logie Awards have been cancelled in 2020, and the departure of editor Thomas Woodgate. His successor is yet to be confirmed.

23 Responses

  1. I don’t know about anybody else but TV Week always seemed to be a kid’s magazine. I bought it when I was in high school in the 1970s (along with TV Times) as it had a lot of news and pinups of pop performers. We had copies of it in the schoolyard and talked about Molly’s column and the celebrity features, but once I left school I stopped buying it and began reading things like The Age Green Guide. Nowadays we have the Net. I’m very surprised TV Week is still publishing.

  3. A little Green Guide query, David…they no longer include programs on BBC First but still have Showcase? We only get a series occasionally, got a lucky strike recently with Guilt, and remarkably caught it at Episode 1 ! Otherwise endless binge runs of Death in Paradise, Silent Witness etc don’t do much for us.

    1. Print guides have been challenged with the plethora of new channels and EPG changes (altho these are down from a peak a few years ago). STV usually is pretty consistent on the latter. I try to post on new BBC dramas, less so on those that have screened elsewhere.

    2. The Foxtel mag is often out of date by time of print, but it does give you a fighting chance with catching BBC First new series, and is from memory less than $4 per month.

  4. Interesting. Maybe we will finally see the Logies with a new home or maybe we will never see them again. Who knows what might happen in the current climate.

  7. So what will this do to the Logies. Maybe it’s time for the AACTA awards to split their awards ceremony in 2 & have a completely separate TV awards show like BAFTA does

  8. They have bought them for next to nothing, Bauer has lost just about everything. Mercury will probably shut down the print editions, find cheap content for digital editions, rebrand and then try to float it for a profit when economic conditions improve. Magazine are the segment of the media that have been hit hardest by competition on the internet.

    1. Last year, professional services consultancy PwC described the “scale and frequency of titles (as being) unsustainable in an era of ubiquitous access to similar content at zero cost”.

  10. That’s a lot of corporate buzzwords, carefully overlooking it’s a bunch of unsourced salacious gossip and obsession with celebrity cellulite and Kate Middleton. There are some decent magazines in amongst them, but overall they’re an embarrassment. One can only hope they will shift focus and improve under new management.

    1. If you look at the total stable I’d suggest it’s the other way around. TV Week, Empire, Women’s Weekly, Who, Men’s Health, Women’s Health, Better Homes and Gardens, Rolling Stone Australia, Wheels etc. A few gossip mags generate some noise.

    2. I agree with their obsession with Kate Middleton (every couple of weeks, they say that she is now Queen of England after Queen Elizabeth II “gave up” the throne and Prince Charles “decided” not to become King of England) and Meghan Markle, who often get painting in a negative light (just this week on the cover of one of the gossip magazines, Charles and Camilla allegedly made a secret trip to Hollywood to get Archie). As a certain President of the United States of America has said a number of occasions, these magazines are fake news!

        1. I don’t read these magazines. Just looking at the cover puts me off. I don’t know many people who read this tripe (in fact, I know no one who reads this tripe).

          1. Hi Jamie, indigo, maybe it’s the same reason why people enjoy satire publications (The Onion, etc)?? They knows the content is untruthful/absurd and silly but enjoyable and fun to read. I mean, I don’t know as I wouldn’t read any of them even if I’m sitting bored in doctor clinic waiting room! Just a thought.

    1. Agreed. I have an online subs ription to Choice and they are constantly publishing updated articles on product tests and consumer issues.

      The rags could be changed to more information/discussion and less fantasy.

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