Are Media launches new editorial divisions to consolidate its weekly brands
Are Media has made promotions across its portfolio of six weekly titles as part of a new structure to provide “greater opportunities for talent development and progression, an enhanced focus on brand differentiation and new commercial opportunities”.
Reporting to group publisher Fiona Connolly, three editorial divisions have been created and new editorial directors appointed to lead each division across its titles New Idea and Woman’s Day, now under Celebrity, TV Week and Who, now under Entertainment and That’s life and Take 5, now under Real Life.
Picture (L to R) Kate Kirsten, Erin Holohan, Amber Giles.
According to recently released Roy Morgan data, Woman’s Day had a readership of 752,000 for June 2021, down 2.7% on a year ago, while That’s Life, was up 9.8% to 492,000.
Take 5 magazines also grew its readership over the past year, led by Take 5 Bumper Monthly, up by 7.4% to 569,000 and Take 5 (Weekly) up by 6.5% to 490,000.
TV Week had a readership of 377,000, up 62.5% on 2020’s numbers, while Who magazine saw a drop of 21.5% between June 2020 and 2021 to 150,000.
Erin Holohan, editor of Woman’s Day, has been promoted to Celebrity editorial director, TV Week editor Amber Giles will lead Entertainment and Kate Kirsten, editor of Take 5, will become the editorial director of the Real Life division.
Editors of the six weeklies will report to the editorial director and the recruiting process for the new editors for Woman’s Day, TV Week and Take 5 has commenced.
Connolly said: “This new structure positions our weekly brands to take advantage of future growth opportunities, enables increased career progression and fosters a culture of mentoring and development for all our editorial teams.
“I will work closely with the editorial directors to develop new strategies, commercial opportunities and brand extensions, enabling our talented editors to focus on what they do best, which is producing quality content for our audiences each week.”
In August 2021, Are Media rebranded ‘The Australian Women’s Weekly Food’ magazine to ‘Cooking with The Australian Women’s Weekly’, to appeal to a broader audience of food and cooking enthusiasts.
Later that month, Are Media’s director of sales Andrew Cook said Christmas is still key for advertisers and sales of its magazines, providing commercial opportunities for advertisers, especially during a pandemic.
Earlier in the year, Are Media announced the departure of CEO Brendon Hill, with former Spotify, Pandora, Microsoft and Fairfax Media executive Jane Huxley appointed to the role.
Hill has served as Are Media CEO since 1 June, 2019 (then Bauer Media), when he took over from Paul Dykzeul. During his time Bauer Media bought Pacific for $40 million from Seven West Media. The combined entity was also then sold by the privately-owned Bauer Media to private equity firm, Mercury Capital.
Dykzeul spent two years in the role, which was previously held by Nick Chan for a period of just over 12 months.
In 2012, Australian Consolidated Press (ACP) sold its magazine assets to Bauer Media for $525 million, four years after James Packer sold the business, and other media assets, to private equity group CVC Capital for $5.6 billion.
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topics
Amber Giles
Are Media
editorial
Erin Holohan
Fiona Connolly
Kate Kirsten
print media
promotions
publishing
