Readership of magazines is up from a year ago with over 11.5 million Australians now reading print magazines

15 million Australians read magazines in print or online

Now over 11.5 million Australians aged 14+ (51.6%) read print magazines, up 0.5 per cent on a year ago, according to the results released today from the Roy Morgan Australian Readership report for the 12 months to June 2024.

This market broadens to 15 million Australians aged 14+ (66.6%) who read magazines in print or online either via the web or an app. These are the latest findings from the Roy Morgan Single Source survey of 64,708 Australians aged 14+ in the 12 months to June 2024.

Print readership increased for seven magazine categories compared to a year ago

The increases in readership were widespread over the last year with seven magazine categories increasing their readership including five of the top ten categories with readership of at least 500,000.

The most widely read magazine category continues to be Food & Entertainment Magazines with a massive readership of 7,396,000, up 0.3 per cent on a year ago and reaching a third of the population.

The second most widely read magazine category, Home & Garden Magazines, increased its print readership by an impressive 1.6 per cent to 4,248,000 to be just ahead of the third place General Interest Magazines now read by 4,097,000.

Other widely read categories include Mass Women’s Magazines read by 2,639,000 in fourth place, Business, Financial & Airline Magazines which jumped 12.7 per cent to 1,393,000 in fifth place to be just ahead of Health & Family Magazines with a readership of 1,236,000.

There were also improvements for Women’s Fashion Magazines, up 3.4 per cent to 993,000, Sports Magazines, up 4.2 per cent to 522,000, Music & Movies Magazines, up 4.6 per cent to 239,000 and Motorcycle Magazines, up 8.3 per cent to 215,000.

Better Homes and Gardens, The Australian Women’s Weekly and National Geographic are Australia’s most widely read paid magazines – all with readership of over 1 million Australians

Better Homes and Gardens is Australia’s most widely read paid magazine with a print readership of 1,793,000 ahead of The Australian Women’s Weekly on 1.2 million.

National Geographic is the third most widely read paid magazine and had the biggest increase in print readership over the past year, up by an impressive 9.9 per cent from a year ago to 1,054,000 and is one of only three paid magazines with a readership of over 1 million.

The fourth most widely read paid magazine is House & Garden which experienced a readership increase of 5.5 per cent from a year earlier to 710,000 to be just in front of Woman’s Day in fifth with a readership of 704,000 – one of only five paid magazines with a readership of over 700,000.

Fresh Ideas & Coles magazine are the most widely read magazines again in mid-2024

Australia's two most widely read free magazines are Coles magazine, with a growing print readership of 5,188,000, up 5.4 per cent on a year ago, just ahead of Fresh Ideas (from Woolworths) on 4,880,000.

Bunnings magazine is the third most widely read free magazine with a print readership of 1,902,000, up 9.2 per cent on a year ago, ahead of the RACQ’s Road Ahead which rounds out the top four free magazines with a readership of 618,000.

Other magazines to increase their print readership over the past year included Qantas Magazine, up 19.4 per cent to 537,000 (the largest increase of any of the top 25 most widely read magazines and some welcome good news for new CEO Vanessa Hudson), Vogue Australia, up 3.8 per cent to 466,000, Reader’s Digest Australia, up 0.3 per cent to 361,000, Delicious, up 12.2 per cent to 319,000, Street Machine, up 0.5 per cent to 313,000 and rounding out the top 25 the Big Issue with an increase of 1% to 290,000.

Overall, a total of ten of the top 25 most widely read magazines increased their readership over the last year.

Top 25 Magazines by print readership – June 2024 (Magazines in bold are up on a year ago)

Full Magazine Print Readership Results available to view here.

The five most read categories of magazines by print readership

• Food & Entertainment (7,396,000 Australians, 33.0% of the population);
• Home & Garden (4,248,000 Australians, 19.0% of the population);
• General Interest (4,097,000 Australians, 18.3% of the population);
• Mass Women’s (2,639,000 Australians, 11.8% of the population);
• Business, Financial & Airline (1,393,000 Australians, 6.2% of the population).

Food & Entertainment magazines number one with total print readership of almost 7.4 million

Food & Entertainment is again Australia's best performing magazine category and is now read by 7,396,000 Australians, or 33.0% of the population – over 3 million ahead of any other category. This is an increase of 19,000, up 0.3 per cent, on a year ago with an impressive six out of the seven titles in the category increasing their print readership compared to a year ago.

The free supermarket titles remain the clear leaders in the category led by Coles Magazine read by 5,188,000 Australians, up 265,000 (up 5.4 per cent) on a year ago, just ahead of Fresh Ideas (Woolworths) with a print readership of 4,880,000.

There were also increases for Delicious, up 12.2 per cent to 319,000, Australian Gourmet Traveller, up 1.7 per cent to 228,000, New Idea Food, up 28 per cent to 127,000 and Eat Well, up 0.4 per cent to 103,000.

Home & Garden magazines are in second place and read by well over 4.2 million Australians

Home & Garden magazines are now read by 4,248,000 Australians, up by 65,000 (up 1.6 per cent) on a year ago accounting for almost one-in-five Australians (19% of the population). Almost half of the magazines in the category, seven (out of 16) magazines, increased print readership on a year ago.

Australia’s most widely read paid magazine is again Better Homes and Gardens with a print readership of 1,793,000 – well over 1 million more than any other paid magazine in the category.

The most widely read Home & Garden magazine is the free title, Bunnings Magazine which is now read by 1,902,000, up 9.2 per cent on a year ago, and is the only other magazine in the category with a readership over 1 million.

Other well-known and widely read magazines in this category include House & Garden with a growing readership of 710,000, up 5.5 per cent on a year ago, Gardening Australia with a readership of 448,000, Home Beautiful with a readership of 368,000.

Other magazines to grow their print readership over the last year were Vogue Living with a readership of 246,000, up 1 per cent on a year ago, Country Style, up 17.9 per cent to 212,000, Australian Country Homes, up 12.5 per cent to 110,000, Home Design, up 12.2 per cent to 102,000 and Good Organic Gardening, up 4.4 per cent to 100,000.

Print readership of General Interest magazines steady at 4.1 million

4,097,000 Australians, or 18.3% of the population, read at least one of the general interest magazines in the year to June 2024 and a large majority of 8 out of 13 magazines increased their print readership.

National Geographic was the clear standout magazine and increased its readership by an impressive 9.9 per cent to 1,054,000 to be one of only three paid magazines read by over 1 million Australians.

Other magazines to increase their readership were Reader’s Digest Australia, up 0.3 per cent to 361,000, the Big Issue, up 1 per cent to 290,000, RM Williams Outback, following an increase of 12.6 per cent to 210,000, Vacations & Travel, up 23 per cent to 143,000 and Cosmos, up 0.3 per cent to 113,000 and T Australia: The New York Times Style Magazine, up 5.5 per cent to 86,000.

There were also strong performances by motoring club magazines: Road Ahead (Qld) with a readership of 618,000, Horizons (WA), up 5.8 per cent to 280,000 and SA Move (was SA Motor) read by 131,000.

Mass Women’s magazines are now read by over 2.6 million Australians

Mass Women’s magazines are now read by 2,639,000 Australians equal to well over one-in-nine Australians (11.8 per cent of the population). The category includes seven magazines read by more than 400,000 people – more than any other category.

Easily the most widely read magazine in the category is The Australian Women’s Weekly with a print readership of 1.2 million ahead of second-placed Woman’s Day with a print readership of 704,000 and in fifth place is New Idea with a print readership of 509,000.

The popular ‘competition-focused’ magazines are also widely read led by That’s Life! Mega Monthly read by 545,000, Take 5 Bumper Monthly with a readership of 513,000, That’s Life! with a readership of 472,000 and Take 5 (Weekly) with a readership of 443,000.

Business, Financial & Airline magazines increase their print readership by a stunning 12.7%

Overall, the Business, Financial & Airline magazines category increased print readership by a stunning 12.7 per cent to 1,393,000 (6.2% of the population) over the last year.

The big mover in the category – and the only magazine in the category read by more than 300,000 people, was the Qantas Magazine, up a stunning 19.4 per cent to 537,000.

There were several other magazines in the category with impressive readership led by Forbes Australia with a readership of 259,000, New Scientist on 208,000, Time magazine on 207,000, Money Magazine read by 183,000 and The Monthly with a print readership of 168,000.

Women’s Fashion, Sports and Motorcycle magazines increase their readership

There was growth in several smaller magazine categories with the Women’s Fashion, Sports, Music & Movies and Motoring categories all increasing their print readership in the 12 months to June 2024.

Women’s Fashion magazines performed well over the last year increasing readership by 3.4 per cent to 993,000. The largest increase in readership in the category was for Vogue Australia, up by 3.8 per cent to 466,000. Also providing a boost was new entrant InStyle Australia with a readership of 125,000.

Sports magazines increased readership by 4.2 per cent to 522,000. The category’s widest read magazine is the AFL Record (Apr-Sep) with a readership of 321,000, however the increases over the last year were for Golf Australia, up 9.8 per cent to 156,000 and Australian Golf Digest, up 12.5 per cent to 153,000.

Motorcycle magazines also saw an increase over the last year, up 8.3 per cent to 215,000 with three of the four magazines in the category increasing their readership. The most widely read motorcycle magazine is Australian Motorcycle News with a readership of 99,000, while there were increases for Dirt Action, up 13.8 per cent to 62,000, Australian Adventure Bike Magazine, up 61.5 per cent to 59,000 and Road Rider, up 7.2 per cent to 49,000.

Music & Movies magazines which these days consists solely of the Rolling Stone magazine had an increase in readership of 4.6 per cent to 239,000.

Other magazines to perform strongly included Street Machine, up 0.5 per cent to 313,000, Diabetic Living, up 4.4 per cent to 281,000, WellBeing, up 27.4 per cent to 276,000, 4x4 Australia, up 2.9 per cent to 237,000, PC PowerPlay, up a stunning 37.4 per cent to 111,000 and Prevention, up 13.2 per cent to 89,000.

Total cross-platform audiences for Better Homes and Gardens, Woman’s Day, The Australian Women’s Weekly and New Idea all exceed more than 1.5 million people

A total of ten Australian magazines have cross-platform audiences over 1 million people and are led by Are Media’s Better Homes and Gardens which has a total cross platform audience of over 2.2 million people – the largest audience of any Australian magazine, ahead of Woman’s Day with almost 2 million people

The Australian Women’s Weekly and New Idea are also widely read and each of these magazines reaches a cross-platform audience over 1.5 million. It is important to note The Australian Women's Weekly has now launched its own stand-alone website offering a premium lifestyle experience for users and which will supercharge the brand for content commerce.

In addition, other magazines with large cross-platform audiences include the National Geographic with a total audience of well over 1.4 million, Take 5 (weekly) with an audiences of well over 1.2 million, Delicious, TV Week, Time and House & Garden with total audiences well above 1 million.

Top 15 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.. #For additional detail on the platforms available for each magazine visit the Roy Morgan website.

Michele Levine, CEO, Roy Morgan, says readership of magazines has increased impressively over the last year with seven magazine categories increasing their readership compared to a year ago:

To learn more about Roy Morgan’s Readership research, call (+61) (3) 9224 5309 or email askroymorgan@roymorgan.com.

About Roy Morgan

Roy Morgan is Australia’s largest independent Australian research company, with offices in each state, as well as in the U.S. and U.K. A full-service research organisation, Roy Morgan has over 80 years’ experience collecting objective, independent information on consumers.