Cleo tones down the sex in relaunch
Bauer Media’s Cleo magazine – under new editor Sharri Markson – has relaunched with a new direction which sees more fashion and lifestyle and less sexual content on the cover.
Bauer is backing the relaunch with a TV campaign including a commercial directed by the publisher’s creative director Caroline Innis and produced by Hackett Films.
Or is that just the current trend of magazines? To try and take them more upmarket and chase ad revenue over circulation revenue? That’s all well and good until times get tough and all the advertisers pull out….
Considering most of the sex tips are laughable to downright dangerous, I’m thrilled to read this. I suspect that most of the 16 yrs olds who still read this magazine are getting their sex tips from tumblr instead.
Surely this would have been an opportunity to also showcase the magazine in different formats other that print? Not even one shot of the website in the ad! Very disappointing.
Beyond the lack of sex tips, the ad makes it look like the same old Cleo to me, albeit with a different font on the masthead. ‘Miranda shares her secrets’, ’30 days 30 outfits’, ‘the 8 minute supermodel workout’, ‘how to be totally awesome at travelling on your own’, ‘how to work a top knot’. Not sure Kelly Osbourne as a columnist is a selling point. The website hasn’t changed, and their social media is still the same as ever. Miranda on the cover when her popularity is taking a dip is risky…it all points to a waste of millions. Perhaps I’m not the target market anymore, but I can’t tell who is. Will be watching this with interest.
Do teenagers still read (physical) magazines? At $6.95? I think not.
Until cover prices the equivalent of 1-2 pounds like they are in the UK (which might not ever be possible in Australia), magazines should probably accept that their current format is dying a very quick death. They’ll be going the way of the Yellow Pages- unread and unopened in a dumpster or storeroom somewhere.
I think this is a good direction for them to take… but, as Dorothy says, they should look at improving their online presence.
Interesting that the Fairfax press is publising more articles about it
Give it x2 issues and oral sex will be the cover lines after their next falling circ figures. It’s like when Cleo relaunched a few years back saying they were going to run only models on the covers again…lasted x2 issues.