CEO Jane Huxley is out of Are Media in what the company is calling a resignation, as the magazine publisher seeks to find a buyer for its stable of fading glossies.
Her exit was confirmed at a staff meeting held at Are Media’s Park Street headquarters at 2pm today.
The announcement of the all-in this morning took all of five minutes to leak to Inside Mail, with staff predicting it would either be news of a sale or change in leadership.
It was the latter: Huxley will be leaving the company and her successor will be Sally Eagle, the current Director of Content.
Inside Mail readers will remember Eagle once told the working mothers of Are Media during one of the company’s ‘town hall’ meetings that the best way to achieve work-life balance is to ‘just get organised!’
‘I’m a mum of four and I get up at 4am every day,’ she declared.
Huxley’s exit, naturally, has been met with celebration from long-suffering staff who lamented the publisher’s belt-tightening during her tenure as CEO.
No word yet on whether Huxley’s trusty assistant, nicknamed The Flying Monkey, will be following her out the door or end up as Eagle’s lackey instead.
CEO Jane Huxley is out of Are Media in what the company is calling a resignation, as the magazine publisher seeks to find a buyer for its stable of fading glossies
Apparently, she’s on maternity leave.
Eagle’s appointment has inspired much anxiety among the magazines’ journos and designers given her not-so-secret enthusiasm for artificial intelligence.
Other reactions from Park St came in thick and fast on Wednesday afternoon.
‘Ding, dong, she’s gone!’
‘Super cruel of them to drop a mystery 2pm all-hands with no context when the mags are up for sale. Would have been so many people absolutely bricking it.’
‘I guess now we’re all going to be waking up at 4.30am like Sally because that’s how you get s*** done!’
Huxley’s exit – her last day is April 2 – follows the departure of technology director and company veteran Daniel Tisi, which Inside Mail exclusively reported last month.
In January, we revealed an anonymous email was doing the rounds, painting a grim picture of the alleged goings-on at Are Media, whose mags include Woman’s Day, New Idea and TV Week, as parent company Mercury Capital tried to find a buyer.
Huxley will leave the company and her successor will be Sally Eagle, the Director of Content
Huxley (right) handed over the reins to Eagle (left) on Wednesday afternoon
The email – the content of which was corroborated by our Park St sources and whose author shows extremely deep insider knowledge – sketched a bleak scene indeed.
A revolving door of execs, failed digital projects, a newsroom exodus, and disastrous acquisitions like the abandoned e-commerce platform ‘Hard to Find’ had reportedly seen millions of dollars evaporate and key talent rush for the exit.
The letter left few senior staff spared, but to name them or list their alleged professional missteps would be an invitation to be sued, so we’ll hold our tongue.
However, the insider did optimistically single out a few members of the ‘old guard’ who they claimed were just about holding the business together after years of upheaval.
They included finance chief Marena Paul, Director of Operations Ian McHutchison, Tisi and Eagle.
Still, the source told us that despite these veterans’ best efforts, Huxley just wasn’t the right person to lead the company out of its death spiral. While she was undeniably impressive as a keynote speaker, they said, the firm’s fading fortunes spoke for themselves.
The anonymous letter also lamented the seasoned talent at Park St – people with decades of institutional knowledge – who might have spoken inconvenient truths and helped steer Are Media into calmer waters, had they not left or been pushed out. They included the likes of Sarah‑Belle Murphy, Nicole Byers, Lisa Green, Fiona Connolly, and Fiona Baker.
The author also stated that director of sales Andrew Cook chose to resign last year instead of staying aboard what he apparently saw as a ‘sinking ship’. His departure reportedly followed a review of the ad sales team by a consultant known to staff as French Alex (ooh-la-la), whose restructuring recommendations Cook disagreed with but who is said to have had the enthusiastic support of Huxley.
Meanwhile, the looming sale of Are Media’s titles has inspired much speculation, both in and outside the business.
The company maintains its wish to sell its entire stable of magazines as a package, but the email’s author predicts a ‘garage sale’ of individual brands in 2026.
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