The iconic Cleo magazine, a required reading for many young (Australian) women interested in fashion, beauty, sex and relationship advice, and celebrity, is to close after 40 odd years in print.
Likely, it’s because of a circulation decline over the years.
Former group editor-in-chief of Cleo, Cosmopolitan, and Dolly Mia Freedman previously said that magazine publishers were too slow to change.
“The internet: that’s where mag readers have migrated en masse. And the failure of publishers in the ’90s and ’00s to adapt to that massive generational change in media consumption has been catastrophic for youth brands like Dolly and Cleo,” she said.
Yes, it is indeed a very sad time for those who grew up with Cleo magazine. We know that some of you are probably freaking out and wondering:
Wait, but what does this mean for all the Cleo titles in other countries?
Relax.
Australian publishing giant Bauer Media said the closure of the Australian edition of Cleo would not impact Cleo Singapore, Malaysia or Indonesia, which were bought by Singapore’s leading publisher SPH Magazines in 2011.
This was echoed by AsiaOne, which quoted SPH Magazines Pte Ltd as saying that each country publishes the title with separate content and business teams independent of Cleo Australia.
Meanwhile, Bauer Media will continue to publish Cleo Thailand through its joint venture with Post International Media.
The final Cleo edition will be the March edition, which will go on sale on 22nd February 2016.
Sources: abc.net.au, AsiaOne, The Sydney Morning Herald, mUmBRELLA / Featured image from mUmBRELLA.
