Magazine readership up year on year at over 15.2 million

A total of 15,227,000 Australians aged 14+ (73.7%) read magazines in print or online either via the web or an app. That is up 1.2 per cent, or 187,000, from a year ago according to the results released today from the Roy Morgan Australian Readership report for the 12 months to June 2019.

Readership of print magazines was just over 13.5 million Australians aged 14+ (65.2 per cent), down 1.3% from a year ago. These are the latest findings from the Roy Morgan Single Source survey derived from in-depth face-to-face interviews with 1,000 Australians each week and over 50,000 each year.

Better Homes & Gardens and Women’s Weekly are most widely read paid magazines

Twelve of Australia’s Top 20 magazines grew their print readership in the year to June 2019, with six of the leading titles growing their readership by at least 5 per cent. Better Homes & Gardens is Australia’s most widely read paid magazine with readership of 1,572,000 in the year to June 2019 ahead of Women’s Weekly with a readership of 1,464,000.

National Geographic had the biggest improvement of Australia’s leading magazines growing its print readership by an impressive 19.4 per cent to 1,363,000 while Australian Geographic also had a good year growing print readership by 19.2 per cent to 677,000 and is now Australia’s tenth most widely read magazine. The new Take 5 Bumper Monthly magazine, which launched in April 2018, is now Australia’s twelfth most widely read magazine with a readership of 642,000.

Coles Magazine most widely read magazine closes in on readership of 5 million

Australia's two most widely read free magazines are continuing to perform well. Coles Magazine readership was up 4.4 per cent to 4,763,000 and Fresh readership increased by 0.4 per cent to 4,180,000.

Other leading magazines to perform strongly include House & Garden up by 5.2 per cent, Road Ahead (+5 per cent), Royal Auto (+4.4 per cent) and just outside the Top 15 Super Food Ideas (+14.1 per cent), Gardening Australia (+2.2 per cent), Vogue Australia (+29.5 per cent) and Reader’s Digest (+1 per cent).

Full Magazine Readership Results available to view here.

The five most read categories of magazines

• Food & Entertainment (6,757,000 Australians, 32.7% of the population);
• General Interest (4,828,000 Australians, 23.4% of the population);
• Mass Women’s (3,236,000 Australians, 15.7% of the population);
• Home & Garden (2,980,000 Australians, 14.4% of the population);
• Business, Financial & Airline (1,520,000 Australians, 7.4% of the population).

Food & Entertainment magazines growth led by Coles, Super Food Ideas & Delicious

Food & Entertainment is again Australia's best performing magazine category and is now read by 6,757,000 Australians, or 32.7% of the population - up 1 per cent in the year to June 2019. Over the last year seven of the nine magazines in this category increased their readership.

Once again the category is dominated by the free supermarket titles both of which saw year-on-year growth - Coles Magazine with readership of 4,763,000 (up 4.4 per cent) and Woolworth’s Fresh now read by 4,180,000 Australians (up 0.4 per cent).

Other titles driving the overall growth in the category included Super Food Ideas which increased 14.1 per cent to 518,000, Delicious up 7.9 per cent to 340,000, Australian Gourmet Traveller up 26.2 per cent to 217,000, Gourmet Traveller Wine up 25.4 per cent to 74,000 and Halliday up 47.8 per cent to 34,000.

Ten General Interest magazines increase readership led by both Geographic titles

4,828,000 Australians, or 23.4% of the population, read at least one of the general interest magazine titles, an impressive increase of 5.9 per cent compared to a year ago. A clear majority of ten of the 13 general interest magazines increased their readership over the last year led by the category leading National Geographic which increased its readership by 19.4 per cent to 1,363,000.

Also performing well was Australian Geographic which increased its readership by 19.2 per cent to 677,000 and there were strong performances from several motoring club magazines including Road Ahead (Qld) read by 647,000 (up 5 per cent), Royal Auto (Vic) read by 705,000 (up 4.4 per cent), Horizons (WA) read by 265,000 (up 10 per cent) and SA Motor read by 234,000 (up 13.6 per cent).

Mass Women’s magazines down year-on-year as Royal Wedding now in rear-view mirror

Mass Women’s magazines are now read by 3,236,000 Australians equal to 15.7 per cent of the population. This is down 4.5 per cent from a year ago although the figures for last year were significantly boosted by the Royal Wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle in May 2018.

The strongest performer in the category was again Women’s Weekly with a readership 1,464,000, although down 5.4 per cent from the Royal Wedding boosted high of a year ago.

Two new titles have been well received with 642,000 reading Take 5 Bumper Monthly and 382,000 now reading That’s Life Mega Monthly while readership of Take 5 Weekly is up 1.4 per cent to 496,000.

Other magazines in the category maintain significant readerships including Woman’s Day with a readership of 982,000, New Idea on 848,000 and That’s Life on 545,000.

House & Garden, Belle, Gardening Australia and Home Beautiful increase readership

Now 2,980,000 Australians read at least one magazine in the Home & Garden category an increase of 2.5 per cent on a year ago with four magazines in particular driving the increase.

The largest increase was for House & Garden which increased its readership by 5.2 per cent to 546,000 while Belle is now read by 114,000 Australians after an increase of 14 per cent.

Other Home & Garden titles which grew their readership include Home Beautiful which was up 1.8 per cent to 332,000, Gardening Australia up 2.2 per cent to 501,000.

By far the leading magazine in the category remains Australia’s most widely read paid magazine Better Homes and Gardens, with a readership of 1,572,000 (down 5.9 per cent).

Airline magazines and The Monthly post increases in Business magazines category

Overall the Business, Financial and Airline magazines readership experienced a decrease of 6.3 per cent over the last year to 1,520,000 (7.4% of the population).

Despite the overall decline, three magazines in the category did increase their readership over the last year led by two of the airline magazines.

Readership of Jetstar increased by 16.9 per cent to 277,000 while Virgin Australia Magazine increased readership by 1.8 per cent to 225,000. However Qantas Magazine remains the most widely read magazine in the category with 400,000 readers.

Also performing strongly was The Monthly which increased readership by 1.3 per cent to 151,000.

Women’s Fashion, Computing & Gaming and Fishing magazine categories increase

Readership growth for magazines was not restricted to the larger magazine categories with Women’s Fashion, Computing, Gaming & Info Tech and the Fishing magazine categories all growing their audience in the 12 months to June 2019.

Women’s Fashion magazines are the seventh most widely read magazine category and experienced growth of 1.2 per cent over the past year for an overall readership of 1,202,000, or 5.8% of the population. Overall four of the six magazines in the category grew their readership over the past year.

The standout in the category was clearly Vogue Australia which increased readership by 29.5 per cent over the last year to 435,000 and is now one of Australia’s Top 20 most widely read magazines.

Other Women’s Fashion titles to perform well over the past year included Marie Claire which grew its readership by 18.7 per cent to 305,000, Elle with a readership of 172,000 (up 15.4 per cent) and Harper’s Bazaar which increased readership by 13.4 per cent to 152,000.

Computing, Gaming & Info Tech magazines increased their readership by 1.8 per cent to a readership of 510,000. A majority of four of the six magazines measured in the category increased their readership over the last year.

All three of the leading magazines in the category increased their readership over the past year. Xbox magazine has now become the leading magazine in the category after increasing readership by 22.7 per cent to 146,000 just in front of Playstation magazine with a readership of 145,000 (up 2.1 per cent).

Also increasing its readership was PC PowerPlay which increased 9.8 per cent to 67,000.

Fishing magazines also had a good year increasing category readership by 12.3 per cent to 310,000 powered by strong performances from leading title Fishing World, up by 53.4 per cent to 227,000 and Fresh Water Fishing Australia increased readership by 55 per cent to 93,000.

Other magazines to perform strongly included healthy Food Guide up by 34.4 per cent to a readership of 262,000, Good Health up by 18.5 per cent to a readership of 295,000, Women’s Health up by 15.4 per cent to a readership of 344,000 and Fitness First up by 35.7 per cent to a readership of 95,000.

Magazine Cross-Platform Audiences up for Women’s Weekly & Good Health

A majority of six of Australia’s leading 10 magazines ranked by cross-platform audience increased their audience in the year to June 2019 led by Women’s Weekly, Good Health and National Geographic.

The Women’s Weekly increased total cross-platform audience by 3.7 per cent to 2,502,000 although Taste.com.au remains the best read title across print and digital formats with a total cross-platform audience of over 3.2 million (up by 1.6 per cent).

The largest increase in cross-platform audience amongst the top 10 leading magazines was Bauer Media title Good Health which uses the Now to Love online hub and increased its cross-platform audience by 247,000 to 1,460,000 (up 20.4 per cent). Also having a good year was the National Geographic which increased its cross-platform audience by 235,000 to 1,644,000 (up 16.7 per cent).

A majority of Australia’s leading magazines (seven out of the top ten magazines ranked by cross-platform audiences) have a significantly larger readership via their print editions than their digital platforms. The exceptions are Taste.com.au, Take 5 Bumper Monthly and Good Health via the Now to Love online hub.

Bauer Media’s Now to Love online hub allows magazine publishers to reach their audience in new ways with innovative online offerings. Many of Bauer Media’s magazine brands (including Women’s Weekly, Woman’s Day, Good Health and Take 5) consolidated their online presence in the Now to Love hub which reaches around 1.2 million people.

Top 10 Magazines – Total Cross-Platform Audience

Full Magazine Total Cross-Platform Audience results available to view here.

Total cross-platform audience includes print – average issue readership and digital – website visitation and app usage in an average 4 weeks, except for weekly titles which are in an average 7 days (denoted by *). #For additional detail on the platforms available for each magazine visit the Roy Morgan website.

Michele Levine, CEO, Roy Morgan, says over 15.2 million Australians now read magazines whether in print or online, up 1.2 per cent (+187,000) on a year ago:

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