Eugenie Kelly returns as editor when Maureen Jordan’s Switzer Media brings Harper’s Bazaar back to Australia, starting with the September issue.

Kelly – who had edited the magazine from July 2018 until last August – was named this week as its editor-in-chief, the role she held with Bauer Media.

The Hearst Magazines International title has been missing from news-stands since the middle of last year, when – with seven other magazines – it was axed ahead of the sale of the Bauer Media Australia business, rebranded as Are Media.

This time the team behind the iconic 154-year-old fashion bible is headed by Switzer’s Maureen Jordan who will lead sales, marketing and brand strategy, searching for key positions including that of editor-in-chief.

A former university and school teacher with degrees in economics and law, she moved into book and business magazine publishing, launching Switzer Media & Publishing in 1990. Its independent fashion magazine Russh was listed by StyleCaster in 2018 as ‘one of the 21 international fashion magazines that should be on your radar’.

Jordan was inducted into the Australian Business Women’s Hall of Fame in Melbourne in 1996, and was a finalist in the Sydney Business Review’s Business Women of the Year 2003.

Harper’s Bazaar currently appears as 30 editions in 22 languages, having been first published in Australia by Fairfax Magazines in the 1980s.

Hearst Magazines International senior vice president Kim St Clair Bodden says the new alliance ‘underscores our desire and commitment to return this venerable brand to new heights of acclaim.”

“We could not be more excited to have Harper’s Bazaar re-enter the Australian market with such an esteemed publisher, Switzer Media & Publishing.”