Women's Fitness, CLEO, and Bauer's Next Move

Last week, Bauer Media announced that due to rising production costs and diminishing ad spend, the November 2014 issue of Women's Fitness will be its last. This move is in spite of strong figures for the title, with a 10.9 per cent growth in circulation for the six month period ended June 2014.

Now, a post on CLEO's Instagram page of Jesinta Campbell posing for "an exciting new mag for @cleoaustralia we have in the works" has people suspecting they're preparing to launch their own health & fitness title under the masthead.

 

(Source: AdNews)

I personally haven't read CLEO in several years. I let my subscription lapse in my early twenties after feeling like the content was starting to pitch to a younger audience. This decision was only affirmed when they relaunched in May 2013 under the editorship of Sharri Markson (now media editor for The Australian), causing the Sydney Morning Herald to brand them "prudish." When I first saw the cover, I actually mistook it for Dolly. The typeface, the air-kissy pose, the abundance of exclamation points...it was as if they had decided to leave the twentysomethings to Cosmo, and go after the teen demographic, who are starting to outgrow Dolly Doctor. Which may seem like a decent strategy, although it hasn't been reflected in their newsstand figures.

New-look Cleo, May 2013 issue (Source: SMH)

Ending June 2014, CLEO reported a drop of 30.10 per cent in circulation - numbers had dropped from 76,163 to 53,221. This followed Bauer's decision to combine the CLEO and Dolly editorial teams towards the end of 2013. Despite no longer being a reader, I would hate to see a home-grown title be shuttered.

It will be interesting to see how the CLEO fitness title performs, I have high hopes for the team, and will be eagerly awaiting circulation figures. Watch this space.