Bauer Xcel boss Christian Fricke has resigned from the publisher after less than 18 months in the role.
Fricke relocated to Australia to take up the position in June last year, following several years at the Germany branch of Bauer. He replaced Carl Hammerschmidt.
In a statement, Bauer says Fricke is leaving to return to Germany for "family reasons".
As part of the management shake-up introduced by new CEO Paul Dykzeul earlier this year, Fricke took on an expanded position to also lead the company’s creative platform Bauer Labs.
Under his lead, Fricke culled three senior roles admitting to staff the business had not hit its business targets. He also oversaw the launch of the Now to Love network and backed former CEO Nick Chan on his decision to restructure Bauer around five core categories.
His exit puts an end to the rumour that Fricke would be the successor for Dykzeul once he retired.
"Christian has made an outstanding contribution to Bauer Media, particularly around the launch of Now to Love, which has captured our news and lifestyle content for our growing digital audience. We wish him all the best for the future," Dykzeul says.
In the interim Dykzeul and Michael Fuyala, head of digital at Bauer Media NZ, will oversee the Australian Xcel team.
Earlier today, Bauer announced it would cut three more magazines from its portfolio as of 2018, including Yours, Recipes+ and Homes+.
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