Magazines matter to most Australians, 65%, or 14.8 million, read magazines in print or online

Now 11.5 million Australians aged 14+ (50.5%) read print magazines according to the results released today from the Roy Morgan Australian Readership report for the 12 months to December 2024.

This market broadens significantly to 14.8 million Australians aged 14+ (65%) 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 64,823 Australians aged 14+ in the 12 months to December 2024.

Six magazine categories have a print readership of over 1 million people

The most widely read magazine category is Food & Entertainment Magazines with a readership of 7,373,000, over 3 million ahead of any other category and reaching nearly a third of the population.

The second most widely read magazine category, Home & Garden Magazines with a readership of 4,240,000, just ahead of the third placed General Interest Magazines, on 4,092,000.

Other widely read categories include Mass Women’s Magazines read by 2,630,000 in fourth place, Business, Financial & Airline Magazines which increased 2.1 per cent to 1,400,000 in fifth place to be just ahead of Health & Family Magazines with a readership of 1,237,000.

There were also improvements for Women’s Lifestyle Magazines, up 11.1 per cent to 367,000 and Motorcycle Magazines, up a large 23.1 per cent to 234,000.

Better Homes and Gardens, The Australian Women’s Weekly and National Geographic are Australia’s most widely read paid magazines – each with more than 1 million readers.

Better Homes and Gardens is Australia’s most widely read paid magazine with a print readership of 1,809,000 ahead of the second-placed The Australian Women’s Weekly on 1,222,000.

National Geographic is the third most widely read paid magazine and had an impressive increase in readership of 4.9 per cent on a year ago to 1,067,000 to be 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 per cent from a year earlier to 723,000 to be just in front of Woman’s Day in fifth with a readership of 694,000 – one of only five paid magazines with a readership of over 600,000.

Coles Magazine & Fresh Ideas are the most widely read magazines again in 2024

Australia's two most widely read free magazines are Coles Magazine and Fresh Ideas. Coles has a growing print readership of 5,399,000, up 5.0 per cent on a year ago, ahead of Fresh Ideas (from Woolworths) on 4,786,000.

Bunnings Magazine is the third most widely read free magazine with a print readership of 1,874,000, up 0.2 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 577,000.

Other magazines to increase their print readership over the past year include Qantas Magazine, up 3.2 per cent to 524,000, Australian Geographic, up 3.3 per cent to 480,000, Reader’s Digest Australia, up 3.2 per cent to 356,000, Delicious, up 3.5 per cent to 316,000, Street Machine, up 1.7 per cent to 314,000 and Diabetic Living, up 12.2 per cent to 309,000.

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

Full Magazine Print Readership Results available to view here.

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

The five most read categories of magazines by print readership

• Food & Entertainment (7,373,000 Australians, 32.5% of the population);
• Home & Garden (4,240,000 Australians, 18.7% of the population);
• General Interest (4,092,000 Australians, 18.0% of the population);
• Mass Women’s (2,630,000 Australians, 11.6% of the population);
• Business, Financial & Airline (1,400,000 Australians, 6.2% of the population).

Food & Entertainment magazines number one with total print readership of well over 7.3 million

Food & Entertainment is again Australia's best performing magazine category and is now read by 7,373,000 Australians, or 32.5% of the population – over 3 million ahead of any other category. Impressively, a majority of four out of the six titles in the category increased their print readership on a year ago.

The free supermarket titles remain the clear leaders in the category led by Coles Magazine read by 5,399,000 Australians, up 256,000 (up 5 per cent) on a year ago ahead of Fresh Ideas (Woolworths) with a print readership of 4,786,000.

There were also increases for Delicious, up 3.5 per cent to 316,000, Australian Gourmet Traveller, up 8.4 per cent to 239,000 and Eat Well, up 35 per cent to 111,000.

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

Home & Garden magazines are now read by 4,240,000 Australians accounting for almost one-in-five Australians (18.7% of the population). More than half of the magazines in the category, nine out of 16 magazines, increased their print readership on a year ago.

Australia’s most widely read paid magazine is again Better Homes and Gardens with a print readership of 1,809,000, and 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 1,874,000, up 0.2 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 723,000, up 5 per cent on a year ago, Gardening Australia with a readership of 439,000, Home Beautiful with a readership of 354,000 and Vogue Living with a readership of 230,000.

Other magazines to grow their print readership over the last year were Country Style, up 20.1 per cent to 229,000, Grand Designs Australia, up 0.9 per cent to 149,000, Belle, up 10.4 per cent to 131,000, Good Organic Gardening, up 31.5 per cent to 117,000, Australian Country Homes, up 11.5 per cent to 116,000, Home Design, up 8.8 per cent to 104,000 and Australian Country, up 24 per cent to 68,000.

Print readership of General Interest magazines is at well over 4 million Australians

4,092,000 Australians, or 18% of the population, read at least one of the general interest magazines in the year to December 2024 with five out of 13 magazines in the category increasing their readership.

National Geographic was the clear standout magazine and increased its readership by an impressive 4.9 per cent to 1,067,000 to be one of only three paid magazines read by over 1 million Australians.

There were also strong performances by motoring club magazines: Road Ahead (Qld) with a readership of 577,000, Horizons (WA), up 5.9 per cent to 298,000 and SA Move (was SA Motor) read by 147,000.

Three other General Interest magazines increased their readership: Australian Geographic, up 3.3 per cent 480,000, Reader’s Digest Australia, with an increase of 3.2 per cent to 356,000 and RM Williams Outback with an increase of 9.5 per cent to 226,000.

Other widely read magazines include The Big Issue with a readership of 259,000, Australian Traveller with a readership of 135,000 and Vacations & Travel and Cosmos, each with a readership of 110,000.

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

Mass Women’s magazines are now read by 2,630,000 Australians equal to more than one-in-nine Australians (11.6 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 over 1.2 million ahead of second-placed Woman’s Day with a print readership of 694,000 and also with a wide readership is New Idea with a print readership of 494,000.

The popular ‘competition-focused’ magazines are also widely read, led by Take 5 Bumper Monthly with a readership of 532,000, That’s Life! Mega Monthly read by 528,000, That’s Life! with a readership of 461,000 and Take 5 (Weekly) with a readership of 430,000.

Business, Financial & Airline magazines increase their print readership by 2.1% to 1.4 million

Overall, the Business, Financial & Airline magazines category increased print readership by an impressive 2.1 per cent to 1,400,000 (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 3.2 per cent to 524,000.

There were several other magazines in the category with notable readership led by Forbes Australia with readership up 3.3 per cent to 280,000, Time magazine up 0.1 per cent to 228,000, New Scientist on 196,000, Money Magazine read by 184,000 and The Monthly with a print readership of 149,000.

Women’s Lifestyle magazines and Motorcycle magazines increase their readership

There was growth in smaller magazine categories with the Women’s Lifestyle and Motorcycle categories also increasing their print readership in the 12 months to December 2024.

Women’s Lifestyle magazines increased readership by 11.1 per cent to 367,000. The category’s widest read magazine is Who with a readership of 138,000, however the largest increase over the last year was for Mindfood, up a stunning 43.4 per cent to 116,000.

Motorcycle magazines also saw an increase over the last year, up by 23.1 per cent to 234,000 with all four magazines in the category increasing their readership. The most widely read motorcycle magazine is Australian Motorcycle News with a readership of 99,000, up 4.3 per cent on a year ago.

The most impressive increase over the last year was Australian Adventure Bike Magazine, with readership more than doubling, up a massive 108.7 per cent to 79,000.  There were also increases for Dirt Action, up 12 per cent to 59,000 and Road Rider, up 13 per cent to 48,000.

Other magazines to perform strongly included Street Machine, up 1.7 per cent to 314,000, Diabetic Living, up 12.2 per cent to 309,000, Healthy Food Guide, up 24.3 per cent to 182,000, Australian Golf Digest, up 3 per cent to 147,000, PC PowerPlay, up 29.7 per cent to 114,000, Prevention, up 12.9 per cent to 94,000 and Homespun, up 6.8 per cent to 78,000.

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.

Leading magazines Better Homes and Gardens, Woman’s Day and The Australian Women’s Weekly all exceed 1.6 million people in total cross-platform audiences*

Nine Australian magazines have cross-platform audiences over 1 million people led by Are Media’s Better Homes and Gardens with a total cross platform audience of over 2.2 million people ahead of Woman’s Day with an audience just under 2 million people.

The Australian Women’s Weekly has a cross-platform audience of over 1.6 million and New Idea and National Geographic both have audiences of almost 1.5 million. It is important to note that The Australian Women's Weekly has now launched its own stand-alone website offering a premium lifestyle experience for users which will supercharge the brand for content commerce.

Other magazines with large cross-platform audiences include TV Week, Take 5 (weekly), Time and Delicious with total cross-platform audiences well above 1 million.

Michele Levine, CEO, Roy Morgan, says over 50% of Australians read print magazines and a large majority of 65% read magazines in print or online – including nine magazines with cross-platform audiences over 1 million people:

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.