How a German media company brought Australia’s greatest magazine empire to its knees

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For decades, the ACP magazine empire soared as it helped teach Australians to cook, dress, talk royalty, flirt and supercharge our sex lives. Then came the internet, new owners – and a startling freefall | TimElliottSMH

Creativity was not a priority. As Siegfried Moenig, who managed the company alongside owner Heinz Bauer in the 1960s and 1970s, once put it: “I am an industrial manager who accidentally produces printed matter.”

In 2010, Heinz handed 85 per cent of his stock to his third daughter, Yvonne. Yvonne was then 36. Two years later, in her first major foray, she bought ACP. Set against the estimated $1.75 billion that CVC had paid just four years before, Bauer seemed to have scored a bargain. But the Germans had misjudged the state of the business, which had been neglected during CVC’s ownership.“CVC hadn’t invested in digital and had cut back on promotions,” says Colin Morrison.

After years of being owned by private equity, staff were initially thrilled to have been bought by a media company. But as soon became apparent, Bauer’s publishing model could not have been more different to ACP’s. In Europe, Bauer churned out a raft of cut-price, mass-market weeklies, celebrity gossip sheets and puzzle books. It was a distribution-based model with the bulk of revenue coming from newsstand sales.

“We thought we would brainstorm, and come up with innovative new solutions to the problems we were facing,” she says. “Instead, an editor from Germany gave a slideshow on ‘repurposing’ content. He said, ‘In Germany if we have a story in one magazine, we can repeat that story in 17 other magazines in different countries, without changing a word.’ ”ran a story

Another editor was told by her boss that “in Germany we have a magazine where normal people just send in their Facebook photos of food they make. That’s the whole magazine. People don’t want to see fancy recipes and pictures.”

 

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RonShamgar TimElliottSMH The evil German empire destroys the plucky Australian magazine industry. I find that hard to believe. Bauer can't stop the internet any more than a guard dog can stop a fire.

RonShamgar TimElliottSMH My wife does freelance stuff for them in their food division. Sure it's a legacy industry but by all accounts, Bauer are fucking woeful at managing, well most things!

TimElliottSMH u forgot to add trashy magazines, 'pull from his/her arse expose', defarmation landmines, paparazi bullying, interview with non value add (to society) socialites and distorted photoshoped body image. Should I add more? imho, closing it would be a great advance to our society.

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