Several Bauer New Zealand magazine titles, including The Listener, Woman's Day and Kia Ora are set to resume publishing immediately after being acquired by new owners. However other titles may be shut down.
Photo: Bauer
Bauer New Zealand abruptly shut down its New Zealand operations in early April, closing popular publications including The Listener and the New Zealand Women's Weekly with immediate effect, and making around 250 staff redundant.
The private equity firm Mercury Capital announced it was acquiring the company's stable of magazines in June.
It has today issued a release saying many of those magazines, including Woman’s Day, New Zealand Woman’s Weekly, The Australian Women’s Weekly NZ, The Listener and Kia Ora will resume publishing immediately.
However titles including NEXT, Taste, Fashion Quarterly, HOME and Simply You are not resuming publication and are being assessed for sale, it said.
Several of the company's Australian titles will also be distributed into the New Zealand market.
The New Zealand business will be headed up by general manager Stuart Dick, editorial director Sarah Henry, and a team of around 40 local editorial and advertising personnel, Mercury said.
They will be supported by staff in Mercury's Australian offices.
Brendon Hill, Bauer ANZ chief exeuctive, said he hoped more New Zealand staff would be added in time.
“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,"
Other former Bauer magazines have been on-sold to different owners.
Auckland entrepreneur Simon Chesterman has acquired Metro. He is one of the founders of the rugby streaming service RugbyPass, which was sold to Sky TV for $40 million last year,
Independent German publishers Konstantin Richter and Verena Friederike have bought North & South.
Hill confirmed that Bauer subscribers who have missed issues of the titles that are resuming will have those added to their subscriptions, with magazine delivery set to resume in early September.
The business will continue to trade under the Bauer name in New Zealand and Australia while a rebrand is underway, he said.
The government was blamed for speeding Bauer's shutdown in April after it banned magazines from publishing during the level four lockdown. However, broadcasting minister Kris Faafoi pointed out that Bauer had pre-existing problems with its business, and that the offshore owners had been looking to offload its New Zealand operations before the Covid-19 crisis.