Phoebe Burgess pens emotional tribute to CLEO

Former CLEO writer Phoebe Burgess (nee Hooke) has opened up about the closure of the iconic magazine after 44 years.

The 26-year-old was the News and Entertainment writer for CLEO for two years before moving to Bath with her now-husband, rugby league player Sam Burgess.

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Penning an open letter to the Daily Mail, Burgess described her days at CLEO magazine, and wrote about how she bore witness to "the beginning of the end" of the title.

She revealed how she left her job as a producer on Sunrise to take on the role of CLEO’s new Lifestyle Writer.

"In magazine world, everything felt like it was in bright pink and under Editor Sharri Markson’s passionate, and often ferocious, leadership there was a feeling of real opportunity every time I showed up to work," she wrote.

"We came up with bold stories in pitching meetings held in rooms lined with pictures of potential bachelors."

Despite feeling part of a boundary-pushing title, Burgess admitted CLEO didn't have a grip on the Australian audience like it used to: "With whispers of the mythical circulation numbers supposedly slipping, it was hard to know whether the audience was buying what we were selling."

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Publisher Bauer merged CLEO and DOLLY magazine teams in November 2013 in a bid to cut costs within the company.

Burgess revealed: "Our work quadrupled with the two titles and most of the perks of the magazine industry vanished."

Despite efforts to revive the magazine, circulation dropped to 42,212, down from about 150,000 just eight years prior, ultimately leading to the closure of the title.

The magazine's founding editor Ita Buttrose told News Corp the news felt like a "death in the family".

"The writing was on the wall once I knew they were going to start stripping stories from other publications rather than commissioning stories here in Australia," she said.

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"It’s sad; it’s like a death in the family for me, but it hadn’t been the mag the Cleo team created all those years ago for some time now."

Burgess said of the magazine's closure: "To have my byline printed in her pages was an honour. We tried. I’ll miss you CLEO. Good luck to all the staff moving on, we’ll be thinking of you in the weeks ahead."