Mercury Capital has officially taken ownership of Bauer New Zealand and will resume publishing immediately for select titles.
The New Zealand portfolio will consist of flagship titles Woman’s Day, New Zealand Woman’s Weekly, and The Australian Women’s Weekly NZ, along with home category leader Your Home & Garden, current affairs weekly NZ Listener and Air New Zealand’s award-winning magazine Kia Ora.
The portfolio will also include websites Now to Love, Homes to Love and Beauty Heaven. Property Press, which resumed publishing shortly after Level 4 restrictions were lifted, will also be part of the new portfolio.
North & South is going to independent publishers Konstantin Richter and Verena Friederike Hasel and Metro to Simon Chesterman. Both magazines will resume publication as soon as possible. The future of the remaining titles, NEXT, Taste, Fashion Quarterly, HOME and Simply You are currently being assessed including a sale to interested parties.
Brendon Hill, Bauer ANZ CEO, says, “I am delighted to see the return of some of New Zealand’s most loved titles and thrilled that this allows us to bring back a talented group of editorial and advertising staff to resume the publishing of these brands.
“The return of our New Zealand operation is a green shoot during a challenging time and hopefully a sign of more positive news to come in the local media industry. We had always remained hopeful that we would be able to resume operations – the easing of Covid-19 restrictions and a more promising advertising market has allowed us to do that. As conditions improve, we hope to continue to expand our NZ operations.”
The business will continue to trade under the Bauer name in New Zealand and Australia while a rebrand is underway, production will be based out of the Australian offices.
