The local edition of Cosmopolitan, which alongside Cleo became a pioneering magazine for women, will close this year after 45 years of publishing.

December's issue will be the last, said Paul Dykzeul, CEO of the magazine's publisher, Bauer Media ANZ.

"It has not been an easy decision to make, however the commercial viability of the magazine in Australia is no longer sustainable," he said in a statement.

Cosmo, as it came to be known, started life in the US in 1886, initially publishing a significant amount of fiction by writers including HG Wells, whose The War of the Worlds was serialised in 1897.

It was not until the 1960s, under the guidance of celebrated feminist Helen Gurley Brown, that it took on its current identity as an outlet, aimed at modern single women, that was unafraid to tackle then-taboo topics like sex.

In 1972, believing that women had the same "visual appetites" as men, Brown famously introduced the Cosmo centrefold after convincing the actor Burt Reynolds to pose nude.

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The magazine also explored relationships, beauty, style and women's health through a mix of reporting, columns and photoshoots.

"When I was 20 years old, Cosmo was a rite of passage," said Bronwyn McCahon, who started her career at the Australian edition before spending a decade as editor-in-chief.

The final issue (December 2018) of Cosmopolitan Australia. ( Supplied: Bauer Media )

"If you wanted to know something as a teenage girl or a young woman, you couldn't get on [the internet] and Google it or go onto blogs — they didn't exist.

"Cosmo was that magazine that you waited for to help solve your emotional angst about things, whether it was something that was happening with your body or a relationship."

Julia Naughton, who began at the magazine as an intern in 2012 before becoming a feature writer, said Cosmo was a strong advocate for showcasing women "in all shapes and sizes".

"It did a lot of work in that space, in body positivity and body image, and how we talk about women's bodies — not having to 'bounce back' from pregnancy or be on 'XYZ diet'," she said.

The Australian edition, which counts Zoe Foster Blake and Mia Freedman among its alumni, was one of more than 60 international versions published in 35 languages.

The magazine appointed a new editor, Lorna Gray, in July, at which point Bauer said Cosmopolitan was seeing "steady audience growth".

The local version of Cosmo has now gone the way of other Bauer Media titles Men's Style and Cleo, which closed in 2016 after 40 years in print.

Rolling Stone Australia, the local edition of another magazine made famous during the American counter-culture era, closed earlier this year.

It signals the continuing difficulty of making money out of print publications in the digital era.