Australian Consolidated Press

Consolidated Press was formed in 1936, combining ownership of The Daily Telegraph and Frank Packer's Australian Women's Weekly. It was renamed Australian Consolidated Press (ACP) in 1957, and acquired The Bulletin in 1960.[1]

The Daily Telegraph was sold to News Limited in 1972; the same year ACP founded Cleo and took over Publishers Holdings (including Australian House & Garden, Wheels, and others).[2][3] Two years later, Frank Packer died, and his son Kerry took over the company.

In 1988, ACP acquired John Fairfax's magazines (including Woman's Day, People, Dolly, and Good Housekeeping).

In 1994, ACP merged with the Nine Network to form Publishing and Broadcasting Limited. In 2000, Australian Consolidated Press was rebranded ACP Magazines.[4]

In 1999, PBL acquired Crown Limited, and in 2002, it combined ACP and Nine into a new division, PBL Media. CVC Capital Partners acquired PBL Media in 2007.

In 2011, ACP sold its magazines in Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia to Singapore Press Holdings.[5]

In September 2012, Nine Entertainment Co announced that it had agreed to sell ACP Magazines to the German multinational publishing company Bauer Media for an estimated A$500 million, with the sale completed on 1 October 2012.[6][7][8] ACP was rebranded as Bauer Media Australia.[4]

The publisher had many tie-ins with other Nine Entertainment Co. companies, such as Nine Network programs (Burke's Backyard and Good Medicine) and the Magshop web service which is now operated by Bauer Media Group.

In October 2019, Bauer agreed terms to purchase Pacific Magazines from Seven West Media.[9] The transaction was completed in May 2020 after the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission cleared the sale.[10][11][12]

In April 2020, several titles temporarily ceased publication due to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.[13]

In June 2020, Mercury Capital purchased Bauer Media Australia.[14][15][16][17][18]

In July 2020, Mercury Capital announced that it would resume publishing some titles[19][20][21] while some including Good Health and NW, and the Australian editions of Elle, Harper's Bazaar, InStyle, Men's Health, OK! and Women's Health ceased permanently.[22][23][24] In addition, New Zealand titles Metro and North & South were sold to independent publishers.[19][20]

In September 2020, Bauer Media Australia was rebranded as Are Media.[25] As part of the rebrand and relaunch, the company's CEO Brendon Hill confirmed that Are Media would be relaunching several titles including the New Zealand Woman's Weekly, New Zealand Listener, Woman's Day, The Australian Women's Weekly, Your Home and Garden, and Air New Zealand's inflight magazine Kia Ora.[26][27]