Mamamia launches Extraordinary Stories podcast with an era-defining look at Australia’s Magazine Queens

• Ita Buttrose hoped Jack Thompson’s hand would be big enough to get her ground-breaking Cleo centrefold past the tough 1970s censors.
• Nene King was told she “wouldn’t make an editor’s bootlace” before she became Kerry Packer’s beloved “cash-cow”, the woman who could sell a million.
• Paula Joye shot every single supermodel and, yes, saw them naked.
• Kirstie Clements urged 90s fashion houses to make sample sizes that were bigger than “christening robes”.
• Bronwyn McCahon partied in an infinity pool with Beyonce on a million-dollar work jolly.
• Louisa Hatfield discovered that celebrity cellulite could shift hundreds of thousands of weekly magazines.
• And Mia Freedman saw the flaming meteorite of the Internet hurtling towards the rarified world of glossy magazines and was one of the voices who asked “Shouldn’t we… do something?”

Mamamia’s new premium podcast Extraordinary Stories launches this week, with Magazine Queens, the first season of this long-form, narrative look into the stories you thought you knew, from the mouths of the women who do.

Magazine Queens follows, over four decades and five episodes, the women who shaped Australia’s booming magazine industry, from the feminist beginnings of Cleo magazine under Ita Buttrose’s visionary leadership, to the royal-obsessed era that saw weekly editors Nene King and Dulcie Boling locked in publishing’s fiercest rivalry. Paula Joye and Kirstie Clements take us to the time when one of the same five supermodels was on every glossy cover around the world - until the rise of the controversial “waif” knocked them off. And Louisa Hatfield opens the door to the offices of the tabloid weeklies and the inner workings of a paparazzi culture that culminated in the very public breakdown of the world’s biggest pop star.

These legendary editors are among those who sat down with Mamamia’s Emma Gillespie to document an era like no other, when, one bold decision at a time, they became the nation’s culture-keepers and taste-makers before, title by title, the world they helped create began to crumble.

Extraordinary Stories will be the first podcast series exclusively available to ‘MPlus’ members, Mamamia’s new subscription offering that launches on April 21st and lets its members get Extra. Closer. The first two episodes of the five part series are now available for free, wherever you get your podcasts.

MPlus will also offer members a daily dose of the Mamamia Out Loud podcast, a monthly Book Club podcast complemented by a members-only discussion with hosts, an exclusive You Beauty video series, exclusive discounts and shoppable guides, and closer conversation with Mamamia talent like Mia Freedman, Jessie Stephens and Leigh Campbell. The media company has teased the launch across its social media and podcast network over the last few days, with fans attempting to guess what’s coming.

Mamamia is Australia’s #1 women’s media brand across written, eDMs, video, social, influencers, member panels, LIVE events, podcasts and online courses. Mamamia’s founding purpose is to make the world a better place for women and girls.