A new monthly magazine New Idea Royals, which will feature stories on the British royal family and the various European royal families, launches on Thursday.
Source: The Australian
It is the expansion of the Royals section which has been appearing in New Idea every week for the past three months or so.
New Idea front cover with another made up story. The inference is despicable.
Not the first time the royal family has murdered someone according to conspiracy theorists. 
Can you imagine fierce rivals New Idea and Woman’s Day falling under the same umbrella?
Selling Pacific Magazines to someone like Bauer will only reduce competition in the magazine sector even further.
There have been numerous examples of Bauer closing magazine titles after buying smaller rival publishers.
Is there enough room there, in the same gutter? 
The Australian reports today that SWM is negotiating a deal to sell Pacific Magazines to Bauer, but no formal agreement has been signed. If the merger goes ahead, it will leave NewsLifeMedia (owned by News Corp) as the only other major magazine publisher in the market.
According to Mumbrella, should the deal be successful, the new business would be sold to private equity as Bauer is keen to exit from Australia.
They came in, shut down a truck load of titles, and now want to get out. 
This is why I gave up reading the Monday Australian, so many stories in the media section trumpet their own business.
Exactly, their business plan is set in yesteryear, didn’t work this time.
Sale confirmed.
Given Bauer and Pacific have magazine titles of similar genre (Woman’s Day v New Idea, Australian Homes and Garden v Home Beautiful + Better Homes and Gardens), Bauer will have to make sure the editorial teams work harmoniously under one roof.
Statement from ACCC
Bauer, Pacific Magazines deal raises preliminary competition concerns
The ACCC has raised preliminary competition concerns about the proposed sale of Pacific Magazines (ASX: SWM) to Bauer Media, in a deal that would combine Australia’s two biggest magazine publishers.
The ACCC is particularly concerned about the impact of the proposed acquisition on some key weekly magazine titles. Bauer’s Woman’s Day competes closely with New Idea , owned by Pacific Magazines, and Bauer’s Take 5 magazine competes strongly with Pacific Magazines’ That’s Life .
“Pacific Magazines and Bauer are the only magazine publishers in certain categories, and their titles appear to compete head-to-head on content and cover price,” ACCC Chair Rod Sims said.
“We are acutely aware of the dramatic decline in magazine revenue, both in terms of lost advertising and reduced sales. The trends in the media sector were considered closely in our Digital Platform Inquiry final report published in July. Many magazines titles have closed over recent years, and more titles will close irrespective of this deal.”
“However, competition within markets has an important role to play to protect consumers, even in declining markets,” Mr Sims said.
“The key Bauer and Pacific Magazine titles remain profitable, and in some cases average more than one million readers per issue.”
“If Bauer bought Pacific Magazines, Bauer would remove its closest competitor in certain segments. Our preliminary view is that this would allow Bauer to reduce the effort put into content production and the range of content, or to increase prices.”
“While there is free online content available that resembles the content in these magazines, many consumers still value the physical format of magazines, the packaging together of stories, puzzles, prizes and other content, and the style of the articles produced by each magazine,” Mr Sims said.
“Our preliminary view is that many readers have a strong preference for print magazines in the key weekly categories.”
The ACCC is also continuing to consider the impact of the proposed acquisition on content acquisition including photographs.
The ACCC has published a statement of issues outlining its preliminary concerns. It invites submissions from interested parties by 14 February 2020. The ACCC’s final decision is scheduled for 2 April 2020.
From Seven West
ACCC Statement of Issues regarding sale of Pacific Magazines to Bauer Media
The ACCC has released a Statement of Issues today expressing concerns about some limited aspects
of the proposed sale of Pacific Magazines to Bauer Media, specifically common ownership
of New Idea and Woman’s Day, and common ownership of That’s Life and Take 5.Seven West Media (ASX: SWM) believes that the ACCC has taken an overly narrow view of the
competitive dynamics and constraints at play for magazine publishers and has not properly taken
into account the competitive constraints faced by magazine publishers from digital and social media
platforms.James Warburton, SWM Managing Director and CEO, said: “Advertising spend on consumer magazines
represents only 2% of total advertising spend in Australia, whereas internet advertising
spend accounts for more than 46% of total advertising spend in Australia.1“At a time when the ACCC itself is looking at the impact of digital platforms on traditional media
businesses and in the face of proposed Government reforms to redress the imbalance
between traditional media businesses and the dominant digital platforms, the concerns that have
been expressed seem misplaced.“The transaction represents an opportunity to provide a stronger base for these titles
to compete into the future against digital platforms.”SWM will continue to engage with the ACCC as its process continues.
At last, when it’s almost too late, the ACCC finally get it.
All the buyouts, mergers and other undermining of Australian media in the post ASX crash era beyond 1987 with no regulation besides this toothless tiger and now they finally wake up and it’s about trash mags.
Where’s Catalano when you need him to make silk a purse out of a sow’s ear? Perhaps the former Rural Press/Fairfax titles are proving too much of a challenge?
Down and down the plughole of relevance they go.
It’s a noble cause and should be considered but outside their latte sipping editorial groupthink, the audience, the target market is not engaged with it and their attempts to engage will be lost on them.
How cynical and what a dated way of thinking.
Reality of the audience @JBar, very difficult to change opinions. Realistic not idealistic, but good on them for trying.