In the latest major development from Australia’s publishing houses, Bauer Media has revealed a new executive team structure as a result of a serious internal reshuffle. In an effort to simplify, the company is placing its brands within five key consumer segments, which will be led by an altered executive team.
The five segments include Women’s Entertainment & Lifestyle; Homes; Food; Fashion, Health & Beauty; and Motoring & Trader. Brands that do not naturally fit into the five segments will transition into the company’s specialist offering BauerWorks.
Bauer Media CEO Nick Chan comments: “Our highly experienced executive team will implement and drive our new strategy going forward. These are strong and buoyant segments in terms of both consumer and advertiser commitment and we already hold significant or leading positions in many of them. The executive team, together with our dedicated staff, will position Bauer for future success in a rapidly evolving consumer, commercial and media environment.”
The changes will see Jayne Ferguson, currently publisher of mass brands TV Week, NW, OK! and Take5 promoted to general manager of Women’s Entertainment & Lifestyle, which will include The Australian Women’s Weekly and Woman’s Day.
Fiona Legdin will also be joining Bauer Media as general manager of Fashion, Health & Beauty, which includes Harper’s BAZAAR, COSMOPOLITAN, ELLE, Dolly, Shop and Men’s Style. She has more than 20 years of experience in the publishing industry, working with ACP Magazines for 15 years, and was most recently group publisher at Pacific Magazines.
Legdin comments: “I look forward to joining Bauer to lead the Fashion, Beauty and Health business. At the heart are the formidable global Hearst brands and I’m excited by the opportunity to build upon their existing strengths and work with the teams to develop new directions to grow the business.”
Other changes see current publisher of the specialist division Cornelia Schulze become general manager of the Food and Homes arenas, while the rest of the remaining executive team unchanged.
