Pacific Magazines

Not to be confused with Pacific Magazine.

Pacific Magazines
IndustryMagazine Publishing
Headquarters
Australia
OwnerMercury Capital[1]
Websitepacificmagazines.com.au

Pacific Magazines was a magazine publisher operating in Australia owned by Seven West Media. In March 2020, it was acquired by Bauer Media Australia in April 2020.[2] In June 2020, Mercury Capital acquired Pacific Magazines as part of its purchase of Bauer's former Australian and New Zealand assets.[1]

History

Pacific published leading titles including Australia's best selling magazine Better Homes & Gardens, Women's Health, Men's Health, New Idea, Who, and the nation's leading fashion brand Marie Claire.

It has it roots in the Southdown Press, the publishers of New Idea and long owned by the Murdoch family. When News Corp Australia acquired the Herald & Weekly Times in 1987, the Australasian and Argus titles (Australasian Post, Home Beautiful, Your Garden) were added. Rupert Murdoch spun off his Australian magazine holdings in 1991 into a new company, Pacific Magazines and Printing (PMP).

Seven West Media acquired Pacific Magazines in 2002, leaving PMP as solely a printing business. Two years later, Seven bought Murdoch Magazines, a former corporate sibling in News Corp Australia, from Matt Handbury.[3]

In 2016, Pacific Magazines took its digital assets back from Yahoo7 and subsequently launched multiple digital products across Fashion, Entertainment and Home & Food.[4]

In 2017, Pacific unveiled its all new "premium user experience" digital offerings for Marie Claire and Women's Health.[5] This was subsequently rolled across their digital network including Who, InStyle, Men's Health, Home Beautiful, New Idea, Better Homes & Gardens, Girlfriend and New Idea Food.

In October 2019 Seven West Media announced, that subject to gaining Australian Competition & Consumer Commission approval, it had agreed to sell Pacific Magazines to Bauer Media Australia.[6] The sale was completed in May 2020.[7] In June 2020, Bauer Media Australia including Pacific Magazines was sold to Mercury Capital.[1]

Publications

Anime

  • K-Zone, a monthly children's magazine highlighting toys, gaming, anime, sport and entertainment.

Fashion & Beauty

  • Marie Claire Australia, a monthly women's fashion magazine, based on the original French version founded in 1937
  • InStyle, a monthly fashion, lifestyle and entertainment magazine, based on the American magazine
  • Men's Health, a monthly men's lifestyle magazine, based on the American title of the same name
  • Women's Health, a monthly women's lifestyle magazine, the international version based on the American magazine
  • BeautyCrew.com.au, the leading digital beauty offering providing how to's, news and product reviews.

Entertainment

  • Girlfriend, a monthly magazine for teenage girls.
  • New Idea, a weekly women's magazine.
  • That's Life!, a weekly lifestyle magazine.
  • Who, a weekly celebrity magazine, sister to the United States weekly People.
  • PracticalParenting.com.au, a premium digital parenting destination with a pull out parenting section in the New Idea magazine.

Home & Food

  • All Recipes, Australia's best user created recipes web property.
  • Better Homes & Gardens, a monthly home/lifestyle magazine and Australia's best selling magazine.
  • Diabetic Living, a bi-monthly lifestyle magazine aimed at people suffering from diabetes.
  • Family Circle, a women's magazine aimed at mothers, based on the American publication.
  • Home Beautiful, a monthly home decorating magazine.
  • NewIdeaFood.com.au, a new gourmet food online product offering recipes with topical food news.

Previous titles

  • Bride to Be, a bridal magazine. (print edition ceased publication in September 2016)[8]
  • Famous, a weekly celebrity tabloid magazine. (print edition ceased publication 2016)
  • Feast, a monthly magazine in partnership with SBS Food (ceased publication in 2015)
  • Prevention, a monthly healthy lifestyle magazine for women over 40 (the last issue by the company was published in December 2016)[8]
  • Your Garden, a quarterly gardening magazine (ceased publication in August 2016)[9]

References

  1. ^ a b c Kelly, Vivienne (17 June 2020). "Bauer Media sold to Mercury Capital". Mumbrella. Archived from the original on 18 August 2020. Retrieved 3 September 2020.
  2. ^ Kelly, Vivienne (26 March 2020). "Bauer Media given all clear to acquire Seven West Media's Pacific Magazines". Mumbrella. Archived from the original on 19 June 2020. Retrieved 3 September 2020.
  3. ^ "Seven Network's Pacific Publications buys Murdoch Magazines". Sydney Morning Herald. 12 July 2004. ISSN 0312-6315. Archived from the original on 24 September 2015. Retrieved 12 April 2015.
  4. ^ "Pacific Magazines Takes Back Digital Assets from Yahoo7". B&T Magazine. Archived from the original on 7 November 2017. Retrieved 4 November 2017.
  5. ^ "Pacific Magazines revamps marieclaire.com.au". Mumbrella. Archived from the original on 17 April 2019.
  6. ^ Blackiston, Hannah (21 October 2019). "Seven West Media agrees to sell Pacific to Bauer Media for $40m". Mumbrella. Archived from the original on 19 August 2020. Retrieved 3 September 2020.
  7. ^ SWM completes sale of Pacific Magazines to Bauer Seven West Media 1 May 2020
  8. ^ a b Miranda Ward (22 August 2016). "Pacific Magazines ceases publication of Prevention, Dec/Jan issue to be its last". Mumbrella. Archived from the original on 23 August 2016. Retrieved 4 September 2016.
  9. ^ Lindsay Bennett (22 August 2016). "PacMags calls quits on Prevention, closes three magazines". AdNews. Archived from the original on 2 February 2017. Retrieved 2 February 2017.