Horton to rake ashes

Horton Media will look through the wreckage of Bauer Media’s New Zealand magazine publishing stable for possible bargains after Bauer announced it would immediately cease publishing many of the country’s bestloved weekly titles.

Queensland-based chief executive Matthew Horton told BusinessDesk it was too early to speculate on whether and which titles may be of interest.

Horton said “we would probably have some interest in some segments of them”, referring to the Bauer titles which include The Listener, NZ Woman’s Weekly, Property Press, Metro, North & South

and home and gardening titles, among others.

Also potentially interested could be Sydney-based Mercury Capital, which the Australian Financial Review

last year reported was looking at the Bauer stable, although yesterday’s statement from Bauer said it had failed to find buyers. Comment was sought from Mercury. One potential investor showing no interest in the swag of potentially lowpriced magazines — some of which are household names — was Barry Colman, former publisher of the National Business Review.

“No way,” he replied, to a query on possible interest.

A former editor-in-chief of the Herald- turned media commentator, Gavin Ellis, said he felt some titles could still be viable and will likely find wealthy individual buyers.

Ellis said while he had anticipated the magazines would close during the shutdown, the announcement Bauer would close permanently came as a shock.

Ellis said well-known titles such as NZ Listener and

Woman’s Weekly would both be likely candidates to be picked up by new owners to resume publishing.

A Bauer spokesperson said no subsidies had been sought during discussions with Government ministers.