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Bauer confirms closure of Cleo, moves all magazine distribution to Gordon & Gotch

Bauer confirmed today that Cleo magazine and its associated website will close after the April edition.

This follows from Bauer Media Australia’s decision to cease publication of the magazine across the ditch.

StopPress understands that Cleo was performing better in the Kiwi market than it was in Australia, and that the local arm of the business would have preferred to keep the publication going. 

However, the local edition of the publication relied heavily on content produced by Cleo in Australia, which meant that it was no longer viable to keep it going on this side.

Bauer Media publisher Brendon Hill says none of the affected staff will be losing their jobs and that they will all be re-deployed within the business.

“Cleo has been an important part of New Zealand women’s lives for more than 40 years, and we would like to express our gratitude to the amazing professionals who have worked on the brand over this time,” said Hill.

Like most other women’s titles, Cleo had come under strain as audiences shifted their consumption from print to digital channels.

According to the ABC circulation data, Cleo’s annual paid circulation has dropped to 3,400 magazines from 4,500 a year earlier. To put the impact of digital media into perspective, the publication had an annual paid circulation of over 21,100 magazines at the end of 2005. 

Despite the closure of the magazine, Hill says Bauer continues to have a strong audience among young women, through both its digital and print portfolio.        

 “We are committed to delivering content to young women through our rapidly growing digital channels and have many innovative solutions for our advertising partners who wish to target them,” says Hill. 

“The Bauer magazine portfolio, excluding Cleo, reaches 74.6 percent of 18-24-year-old women every month [Nielsen CMI Oct14-Sept15] – and our fast growing digital Women’s Network generates 1.5 million page views per month in the fashion, beauty and celebrity categories.”

In other news, Bauer has made a high-level decision to move all retail magazine distribution activities provided by Network Services (which owns Netlink Distribution in New Zealand) to Gordon & Gotch.

This move also follows on from a decision made on the Australian side of the business.

Bauer New Zealand chief executive Paul Dykzeul says the shift is still in the proposal phase, but that it makes sense given that Netlink and Gordon & Gotch are both providing very similar services.

“There have been instances of a single delivery truck was carrying separate bundles of magazines labelled Gordon & Gotch and Netlink,” Dykzeul says.

He says that using one distributor will make the process more efficient than it was before.     

As part of the transition, Gordon & Gotch will be taking over the Netlink warehouse in New Zealand.

Dykzeul says that while this will have an impact on employees, it’s likely that many Netlink employees will be integrated into Gordon & Gotch as the company takes on the extra workload.  

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