Cleo (magazine)

Bauer Media Group (until February 2016) In June 2020, Cleo was acquired by the Sydney investment firm Mercury Capital.

Oakes also brought celebrities back to the Cleo cover instead of "models only" policy introduced in the late 2007.

Introduced in the August 2008 issue, this policy was designed to appeal to Generation Y, with readers invited to critique each issue in return for prizes such as iPhones and designer bags. As then editor Oakes explained, "Every month we will ask our readers online to give feedback (which will be) incorporated into the magazine the following month. We are doing all the things that motivate Generation Y: instant gratification and personalisation."

Cleo experienced an Average Net Paid Sales (ANPS) decline from 149,256 in 2008 to 134,286 in 2009, with a rate dropped by −10.03% and the number of copies sold decreased by 14,970 year on year. Meanwhile, the cover price of Cleo increased by $0.2 from $7.00 in 2008 to $7.20 in 2009. The circulation of Cleo decreased from 128,183 in 2009 to 110,081 in 2010.

ABC mini series, Paper Giants: The Birth of Cleo dramatises the emergence of the magazine. Screened over two nights in April 2011, the series was a ratings winner, with an average of 1.34 million viewers tuning in on the opening night to watch Ita Buttrose (played by Asher Keddie) navigate the male dominated world of Australian publishing in the 1970s as she fights to get Cleo off the ground. For many avid readers of Cleo, the idea that the magazine almost did not exist made for exciting television. Most critics praised Asher Keddie's convincing portrayal of Buttrose as an ambitious leader and supportive mentor. According to producer John Edwards, Buttrose was a significant contributor to the script. "When I went to meet her, she was tentative, nervous and fearful but also flattered".

Academic Margaret Henderson argues that just as Cleo made feminist ideas popular, Paper Giants uses "feminist representational techniques" to make the 1970s era of social and political change accessible to modern audiences. For many avid readers of Cleo, the idea that the magazine almost did not exist made for exciting television. A feminist approach to relationships is shown through the many scenes of the staff gathered around the table brainstorming. The impression given is that the evolution of editorial ideas is very much a collective work process, and the women's relationship to each other is supportive rather than competitive. The typical Cleo reader is represented by Ita's shy assistant, Leslie (played by Jessica Tovey) who begins the series faking orgasms and running errands, and by the end, escapes her dead end relationship to begin working as a journalist in London. Women's sexual liberation is highlighted in playful tones. There is plenty of joking, bantering, and double entendres among the female characters who use humour to deal with obstacles that come their way from the suits upstairs when creating the magazine. When we are shown the discomfort expressed by Kerry Packer (played by Rob Carlton) and Sir Frank when the female staff have frank discussions with them regarding the sexual content of Cleo, the scene is meant to be funny. "Paper Giants' recruitment of humour is an important corrective to the cliché of humourless feminists and to po faced and hubristic accounts of radical political movements".