Readership of magazines is up 4.1% from a year ago with increases in readership for all magazine categories

15 million Australians read magazines in print and online.

Now 11.5 million Australians aged 14+ (53.1%) read print magazines, up 4.1 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 2023.

This market broadens to 15 million Australians aged 14+ (69.5%) who read magazines in print or online either via the web or an app, a small drop of 1.8 per cent from a year ago. These are the latest findings from the Roy Morgan Single Source survey of 66,234 Australians aged 14+ in the 12 months to June 2023.

Print readership increased for all 17 magazine categories compared to a year ago as readership rebounded following the end of the pandemic restrictions

The increases in readership were widespread over the last year as pandemic-era restrictions were finally lifted by October 2022 with all 17 magazine categories increasing their readership on a year ago.

There were eight magazine categories to increase their total readership by more than 100,000 people compared to a year ago led by all seven categories with a readership of 950,000+.

The most widely read category of Food & Entertainment magazines increased its print readership by 3.4 per cent to 7,377,000 ahead of Home & Garden magazines, up a large 14.1 per cent to 4,183,000.

The print readership of General Interest magazines, the third most widely read magazine category, was up 2.5 per cent to 4,123,000 and Mass Women’s magazines were up 8.6 per cent to 2,869,000.

There were also improvements for Health & Family magazines, up 16.8 per cent to 1,378,000 and Business, Financial & Airline magazines, up a large 33.9 per cent to 1,236,000 and Women’s Fashion Magazines, up 21.2 per cent to 960,000 and Men’s Lifestyle Magazines, up 41.6 per cent to 415,000.

Eight of the top 10 magazines increased their print readership over the past year with Better Homes & Gardens and The Australian Women’s Weekly again the most widely read paid magazines

An impressive eight of the top 10 most widely read magazines increased their print readership over the last year and looking more broadly a impressive 21 out of the top 25.

Better Homes & Gardens is Australia’s most widely read paid magazine with print readership of 1,821,000, up 15.7 per cent on a year ago ahead of the The Australian Women’s Weekly on 1,328,000, up 10.5 per cent. These two magazines continue to be the only two paid magazines with a readership of over 1 million.

In addition, National Geographic has an impressive and growing print readership, up 17.2 per cent to 959,000 – the largest increase of any of the top 15 magazines – to be Australia’s third most widely read paid magazine ahead of Woman’s Day, up 13.8 per cent to 827,000.

Fresh Ideas & Coles magazine are the most widely read with almost 5 million readers each

Australia's two most widely read free magazines are Fresh Ideas (from Woolworths) with a growing print readership of 4,935,000, up 4.4 per cent on a year ago just ahead of Coles magazine with readership increasing 1.9 per cent to 4,923,000.

Bunnings magazine is the third most widely read free magazine with a print readership of 1,742,000, up 14.9 per cent on a year ago, ahead of the NRMA’s magazine Open Road (NSW) which rounds out the top four free magazines with a readership of 1,275,000.

Other magazines to increase their print readership over the past year included House & Garden, up 16.6 per cent to 673,000, Take 5 Bumper Monthly, up 13 per cent to 584,000, That’s Life Mega Monthly, up 3.1 per cent to 557,000, Take 5 (Weekly), up 5 per cent to 505,000, That’s Life!, up 5.3 per cent to 494,000, Australian Geographic, up 10.7 per cent to 474,000, Gardening Australia, up 7.5 per cent to 456,000, Qantas Magazine, up a large 34.4 per cent to 449,000, Vogue Australia, up 27.6 per cent to 449,000, TV Week, up 21.5 per cent to 413,000, AFL Record, up 97.5 per cent to 393,000, Home Beautiful, up 17 per cent to 372,000 and Reader’s Digest Australia, up 4.7 per cent to 360,000.

Top 25 Magazines by print readership – June 2023 (Magazines in green are up on a year ago)

Full Magazine Print Readership Results available to view here. *Reporting period covers in-flight distribution.

The five most read categories of magazines by print readership

• Food & Entertainment (7,377,000 Australians, 34.1% of the population);
• Home & Garden (4,183,000 Australians, 19.3% of the population);
• General Interest (4,123,000 Australians, 19.1% of the population);
• Mass Women’s (2,869,000 Australians, 13.3% of the population);
• Health & Family (1,378,000 Australians, 6.4% 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 7,377,000 Australians, or 34.1% of the population – over 3 million ahead of any other category. This is an increase of over 240,000, up 3.4 per cent, on a year ago with four out of the eight 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 Woolworth’s Fresh Ideas read by 4,935,000 Australians, up 210,000 (up 4.4 per cent) on a year ago, just ahead of Coles magazine with a print readership of 4,923,000, up 94,000 (up 1.9 per cent).

There were also increases for Australian Gourmet Traveller, up 23.1 per cent to readership of 224,000 and Cooking with Australian Women’s Weekly, up 17.7 per cent to a readership of 113,000.

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

Home & Garden magazines are now read by 4,183,000 Australians, up a large 516,000 (up 14.1 per cent) on a year ago accounting for almost one-in-five Australians (19.3% of the population). There were a majority of ten (out of 17) magazines in the category to increase their print readership on a year ago.

Australia’s most widely read paid magazine is again Better Homes & Gardens with a print readership of 1,821,000 – almost 500,000 more than any other paid magazine and up 15.7 per cent on a year ago.

The second most widely read is the freely available Bunnings magazine which is now read by 1,742,000, up 14.9 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 673,000, up 16.6 per cent on a year ago, Gardening Australia with a readership of 456,000, up 7.5 per cent on a year ago, Home Beautiful with a readership of 372,000, up 17.0 per cent on a year ago and Vogue Living with a readership of 244,000, up 17.9 per cent on a year ago.

Other magazines to grow their print readership over the last year were Organic Gardener, up 48 per cent to 188,000, Inside Out, up 13.8 per cent to 124,000, Australian Country Homes, up 46.3 per cent to 98,000 and Backyard & Outdoor Living, up 30.6 per cent to 64,000.

Print readership of General Interest magazines increases to over 4.1 million during 2022-23

4,123,000 Australians, or 19.1% of the population, read at least one of the general interest magazines, up 101,000 (up 2.5 per cent) on a year ago. Of the 14 magazines in the category, five increased their print readership from a year ago.

National Geographic was the most widely read paid magazine in the category with a print readership of 959,000, an impressive increase of 17.2 per cent on a year ago, ahead of Australian Geographic with a print readership of 474,000 (up 10.7 per cent) and Reader’s Digest Australia with a print readership of 360,000 after an increase of 4.7 per cent.

There were also strong performances by several motoring magazines: Open Road (NSW) read by 1,275,000, Road Ahead (Qld) now read by 643,000, Horizons (WA) read by 265,000, SA Motor (SA) read by 227,000 and Journeys (Tasmania), up 9.1 per cent to 36,000.

Another magazine to grow their print readership was Big Issue, up 31.1 per cent to 287,000.

Mass Women’s magazines are read by over 2.8 million Australians in 2022-23

Mass Women’s magazines are now read by 2,869,000 Australians equal to 13.3 per cent of the population, and up 8.6 per cent on a year ago. The category include six magazines read by more than 500,000 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 1,328,000, an increase of 10.5 per cent on a year ago ahead of second-placed Woman’s Day with a readership of 827,000, up 13.8 per cent on a year ago.

The popular ‘competition-focused’ magazines are also widely read led by Take 5 Bumper Monthly with a readership of 584,000, an increase of 13 per cent on a year ago, That’s Life! Mega Monthly read by 557,000, up 3.1 per cent, Take 5 (Weekly) with a readership of 505,000, up 5 per cent on a year ago and That’s Life, up 5.3 per cent from a year ago and read by 494,000.

Another widely read magazine in the category is the fourth-placed New Idea with a readership of 583,000 while also increasing in readership, during a year in which Queen Elizabeth passed on and King Charles ascended to the throne, was Royals Monthly (by New Idea) read by 265,000, up 23.8 per cent on a year ago – the largest increase for any magazine in the category.

Health & Family magazines increase their print readership by 16.8% from a year ago

Overall the Health & Family magazines print readership increased by a substantial 16.8 per cent to 1,378,000 (6.4% of the population) – the largest increase of any of the top five magazine categories.

Five of the six magazines in the category experienced an increase in print readership over the last year led by Diabetic Living, up 33.2 per cent to 269,000 and WellBeing, up 35.6 per cent to 217,000.

There were other large increases in print readership for Wellbeing Wild, up 30 per cent to 52,000 and Prevention, up 14.7 per cent to 78,000.

Women’s Fashion and Women’s Lifestyle lead categories increasing their readership

There was growth in several smaller magazine categories with the Women’s Fashion, Women’s Lifestyle, Business, Financial & Airline, Motoring, Men’s Lifestyle, Music & Movies, Motorcycle, Fishing, TV and Crafts categories all increasing their print readership in the 12 months to June 2023.

Women’s Fashion magazines performed well over the last year increasing category readership by 21.2 per cent to 960,000. All four continuing magazines increased their readership led by the most widely read magazine in the category, Vogue Australia, up 27.6 per cent to 449,000. Also increasing were Marie Claire, up 34.8 per cent to 306,000, Frankie, up 20.9 per cent to 283,000 and Harper’s Bazaar, up 6.7 per cent to 160,000.

Women’s Lifestyle magazines were a standout performer over the last year growing overall print readership by 11.1 per cent to 359,000. Two of the magazines in the category increased their readership on a year ago led by Who, up 16.2 per cent to 158,000, ahead of English Woman’s Weekly which increased its readership by 13.2 per cent to 120,000.

Business, Financial & Airline magazines increased their readership by 33.9 per cent to 1,236,000 over the last year led by Qantas Magazine, up 34.4 per cent to 449,000, Money Magazine, up 25.4 per cent to 232,000, The Monthly, up 20.6 per cent to 187,000, Time, up 21 per cent to 219,000 and New Scientist, up 7.6 per cent to 213,000.

Motoring magazines are the eighth most widely read magazine category and experienced growth of 2.8 per cent over the past year for an overall print readership of 932,000, or 4.3% of the population, with four of the five magazines in the category increasing their readership over the past year. The magazines that increased their readership are Street Machine, up 1.3 per cent to 311,000, Wheels, up a large 40.8 per cent to 290,000, Unique Cars, up 17.3 per cent to 224,000 and Just Cars, up 3.1 per cent to 231,000.

Other magazines to perform strongly included TV Week, up 21.5 per cent to 413,000, Rolling Stone, up 14.5 per cent to 229,000, APC, up 25 per cent to 105,000, Play Australia Magazine, up 19.6 per cent to 122,000, Golf Australia, up 10.1 per cent to 142,000, Foxtel Magazine, up 16.6 per cent to 260,000, AFL Record (Apr-Sep) up a stunning 97.5 per cent to 393,000, Fishing World, up 18.5 per cent to 173,000, Fresh Water Fishing Australia, up 20.9 per cent to 110,000, Homespun, up 25.4 per cent to 79,000, Quilters Companion, up 18 per cent to 72,000, Dirt Action, up 28.6 per cent to 54,000, Road Rider, up 15 per cent to 46,000 and Australian Motorcycle News, up 2 per cent to 104,000.

Are Media’s ‘Now to Love’ digital platform is accessed by around 1.2 million Australians

The results for the 12 months to June 2023 for Magazine Publishers are strong with the 4 week digital platform audience data showing Are Media’s ‘Now to Love’ website attracting an audience of around 1.2 million Australians in an average 4 week period. Are Media’s ‘Now to Love’ platform allows advertisers to reach their audience in new ways with innovative online offerings.

Many of Are Media’s magazine brands (including The Australian Women’s Weekly, Woman’s Day, Take 5 and TV Week) have consolidated their online presence on the ‘Now to Love’ platform which adds incremental reach to already strong print based publications.

Of those magazines on the ‘Now to Love’ website Woman’s Day reaches a total cross-platform audience of well over 2.7 million people while The Australian Women’s Weekly reaches almost 2.5 million people.

News Corp’s Taste.com.au Magazine, which has now transitioned into a digital only outlet after this surveying period concluded, has a digital audience of over 3.2 million. In addition, other magazines with wide audiences include Better Homes & Gardens with an audience of over 2.3 million, Are Media’s Take 5 (weekly) and TV Week with total audiences of around 2 million, New Idea with over 1.8 million and Take 5 Bumper Monthly and with an audience of over 1.7 million readers.

This is the fourth readership release following the re-engineering of Roy Morgan’s digital audience measurement data. All digital data now calls on a broader set of inputs while the algorithm to calculate the digital audiences has been refined. Revised from July 2020, data can be compared year-on-year without a trend break.

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 powered out of the pandemic period with all 17 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.