Editions of magazine Cleo in Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia are unaffected by the closure of the original Australian edition of the glossy young women's title.

SPH Magazines - part of Straits Times publisher Singapore Press Holdings - acquired ACP Singapore in 2011, giving it full ownership of the Cleo title for the three southeast Asian markets.

A spokesman says each country publishes the title with separate content and business teams independent of Cleo Australia. "Cleo Singapore has grown an audience size of more than 150,000 and is an integral part of the SPH Magazines women's network audience of 1.9 million," he said.

Launched in Singapore in 1994, it has positioned itself as "the go-to lifestyle brand" for young women in the 18-29 year-old age group, with integrated print, web and tablet platforms and a loyal following on social media.

German publisher Bauer Media, which bought Cleo Australia from Nine Entertainment with other ACP titles in 2012, announced its closure last week, claiming it had been making losses over a period.

Its launch by publisher Kerry Packer and editor Ita Buttrose was the subject of 2011 TV mini-series Paper Giants: The Birth of Cleo. Packer's son James sold Nine and ACP to private equity firm CVC Asia Pacific in 2007.

Everyone has a favourite Cleo story including GXpress co-director Maggie Coleman who worked on Cleo and Australian Women's Weekly under Buttrose. "It was a very tight ship, and Buttrose was fastidious about details," she says. "In the days before computer setting, we used to spend hours counting characters to get the captions around pictures to just the right shape."

Coleman worked for ACP between stints for soon-to-be husband Peter (GXpress's managing editor) in the UK, and marrying him. During a visit to Sydney, Peter recalls the current Cleo issue, characteristically pushing boundaries with a cartoon of a person apparently trying to make a 'night deposit' at a sperm bank. "I can't imagine I would have shown it to my mum," he says.

Pictured: The historic launch cover, featured in a TV mini-series