Murdoch Books is an Australian publisher, mainly of gardening and cook books. The company had its beginnings when '' The Advertiser'' of

Adelaide Adelaide ( ) is the capital city of South Australia, the state's largest city and the fifth-most populous city in Australia. "Adelaide" may refer to either Greater Adelaide (including the Adelaide Hills) or the Adelaide city centre. The dem ...

started printing magazines. Advertiser Magazines was renamed Murdoch Magazines in 1988. It published Australian editions of magazines '' Better Homes and Gardens'' and ''Family Circle''. Matt Handbury, a nephew of

Rupert Murdoch Keith Rupert Murdoch ( ; born 11 March 1931) is an Australian-born American business magnate. Through his company News Corp, he is the owner of hundreds of local, national, and international publishing outlets around the world, including ...

, ran the company from 1987 and in 1989 launched ''New Woman''. He purchased Murdoch Magazines in 1991. Over the years the company grew and became a very well-respected, albeit small player, in the highly competitive magazine market, and regarding securing its share of the advertising dollar, "punched well above its weight". The company philosophy was "our purpose is to develop the most highly involved readers and to convince advertisers of the extraordinary and untapped benefit that involvement delivers". The launch of ''

Marie Claire ''Marie Claire'' is a French international monthly magazine first published in France in 1937, followed by the United Kingdom in 1941. Since then various editions are published in many countries and languages. The feature editions focus on wo ...

'' in 1995 was a major success, and the title continues that success today (now owned by ARE Media). ''

Men's Health ''Men's Health'' (''MH''), published by Hearst, is the world's largest men's magazine brand, with 35 editions in 59 countries. It is also the best-selling men's magazine on U.S. newsstands. Started as a men's health magazine by Rodale, Inc. ...

'' was another successful title. There were a few magazines that came and went quite quickly; ''Savvy'', in 1990, only lasted 3 issues. ''Live This'' in 2000 shared a similar fate. ''Marie Claire Lifestyle'' lasted longer but ultimately was closed as well. Murdoch Magazines was sold to

Pacific Magazines Pacific Magazines was a magazine publisher operating in Australia owned by Seven West Media. In March 2020, it was acquired by Bauer Media Australia in April 2020. In June 2020, Mercury Capital acquired Pacific Magazines as part of its purcha ...

in 2004. Murdoch Books began as a subsidiary of Murdoch Magazines. In 2012 Murdoch Books was acquired by

Allen & Unwin George Allen & Unwin was a British publishing company formed in 1911 when Sir Stanley Unwin purchased a controlling interest in George Allen & Co. It went on to become one of the leading publishers of the twentieth century and to establish an ...

. Imprints include Pier 9 Books, which features titles in the fields of fiction, memoir, biography and history.

References

External links

* * Magazine publishing companies of Australia Book publishing companies of Australia {{Australia-company-stub