Paper giants

When I first started at CLEO my friend Julia Zaetta organised for me to have lunch with Ita Buttrose. I told everyone I was really excited but mostly I was just terrified to meet the woman who had created CLEO. I planned my outfit carefully and bought a big bunch of flowers. When I arrived the lift was broken and I climbed 10 levels of stairs before meeting her face-to-face.  I felt light headed and short of breath. Ita, who had arrived minutes before me, looked perfect. 

Ita told me lots of great stories about the early days of CLEO.  Like, pre-launch, after creating a mock for the magazine, Sir Frank Packer thought it was too risque and asked his son Kerry to take it to focus groups and get feedback. Kerry arrived in Ita's office with the results of the study, "Well it's unanimous" he said, "...they absolutely... hated it". Ita began to cry, "What will we do?' she said.  Kerry responded, "we hide these results, pretend they never happened and just launch it anyway." That's what they did of course and, lucky for them, the first issue sold out in 48 hours. It was a sensation. In fact for the first few months they didn't have the capacity to print enough copies for it not to sell out in the first week. Ita has never trusted focus group results or research since, she believes in "gut instinct".

The day after our meeting Ita sent me a copy of her biography, A Passionate Life, with a lovely inscription. In a sentimental sense it's one of my favourite books however it has always been criticised for leaving out one of the most fascinating parts of her life and career; her intimate relationship with Kerry Packer. 

But now that Kerry has passed away apparently we will finally find out what happened between them in the new ABC series "Paper Giants: The Birth of CLEO" (working title) out in 2011. Ita will be played by Asher Keddie (the first pic from the show is below). If you love magazines her bio (despite it's omissions) is still a great read. Oh the heady days when magazine circulations still grew from month to month...