A stunning 12 magazine categories enjoy growth over the last year led by Health & Family, Home & Garden, Women’s Lifestyle and Women’s Fashion – all with readership up on 2021

15 million Australians read magazines in print and online

Now 11.2 million Australians aged 14+ (52.5%) read print magazines according to the results released today from the Roy Morgan Australian Readership report for the 12 months to September 2022.

This market broadens to 15 million Australians aged 14+ (70.5%) who read magazines in print or online either via the web or an app, a small drop of 4.2 per cent from a year ago. These are the latest findings from the Roy Morgan Single Source survey of 65,989 Australians aged 14+ in the 12 months to September 2022.

Print readership increased for 12 magazine categories compared to a year ago including Health & Family, Home & Garden, Women’s Lifestyle, Women’s Fashion and Motoring

There were increases in print readership for 12 of the 17 magazine categories over the last year during which Australians dealt with the easing of restrictions throughout the last 12 months.

The print readership of Health & Family magazines, the fifth most widely read magazine category, increased by over a third, up 33.9 per cent, to 1,287,000 and the third most widely read Home & Garden category, was up marginally to a readership of 3,792,000.

Food & Entertainment magazines were the most widely read with a print readership of 7,185,000 ahead of the second most widely read General Interest Magazines with a print readership of 4,114,000.

The fourth most widely read category is Mass Women’s Magazines with a print readership of 2,708,000 while there were big improvements in Women’s Lifestyle, up 37.6 per cent to 333,000, Women’s Fashion, up 8.3 per cent to 831,000 and Motoring, up 12.7 per cent to 938,000.

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

Exactly half of the top 10 most widely read magazines increased their print readership over the last year and nine out of the top 25.

Better Homes & Gardens is Australia’s most widely read paid magazine with print readership of 1,627,000 ahead of the Australian Women’s Weekly with a print readership of 1,234,000. Better Homes & Gardens and Australian Women’s Weekly are the only two paid magazines with a readership of over 1 million.

In addition, National Geographic has an impressive print readership of 825,000 to be Australia’s third most widely read paid magazine just ahead of Taste.com.au Magazine, up 13.6 per cent to 804,000 ahead of Woman’s Day with a print readership of 751,000.

Coles magazine & Fresh Ideas are most widely read while Bunnings magazine is read by 1.6m

Australia's two most widely read free magazines are Coles magazine with a print readership of 4,819,000 just ahead of Fresh Ideas (from Woolworths) with a readership of 4,769,000, up 2.3 per cent.

Bunnings magazine is the third most widely read free magazine with a print readership of 1,574,000, up 4.9 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 1,349,000, up a large 23.8 per cent on a year ago – the largest increase for any of the top 20 magazines.

Also increasing was its counterpart up north with RACQ’s Road Ahead (Qld) increasing its readership by 3.4 per cent to 672,000 to be the tenth most widely read magazine in the country.

Other magazines to increase their print readership over the past year included That’s Life! Mega Monthly, up 1.8 per cent to 569,000, Vogue Australia, up 3.2 per cent to 356,000 and big gains for both Men’s Health, up 39.3 per cent to 337,000 and Street Machine, up 31 per cent to 321,000. Qantas Magazine, which was now returned to ‘in-flight’ distribution with the resumption of domestic air travel recorded a print readership of 354,000 during this period.

Top 25 Magazines by print readership – Sept. 2022

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 (7,185,000 Australians, 33.8% of the population);
• General Interest (4,114,000 Australians, 19.4% of the population);
• Home & Garden (3,792,000 Australians, 17.8% of the population);
• Mass Women’s (2,708,000 Australians, 12.7% of the population);
• Health & Family (1,287,000 Australians, 6.1% of the population).

Food & Entertainment magazines number one with total print readership of 7.2 million

Food & Entertainment is again Australia's best performing magazine category and is now read by 7,185,000 Australians, or 33.8% of the population – over 3 million ahead of any other category. A majority of seven out of the 11 titles in this category increased their print readership on a year ago.

The free supermarket titles remain the clear leaders in the category led by Coles magazine with a print readership of 4,819,000 just ahead of the second-placed Woolworth’s Fresh Ideas now read by 4,769,000 Australians, up 108,000 (up 2.3 per cent).

Taste.com.au magazine was one of the big winners over the last year and significantly increased its print readership, up by 13.6 per cent to 804,000, while readership of Eat Well was up an impressive 24.3 per cent to 138,000.

Magazines to increase their readership also included New Idea Food, up 50 per cent to 105,000, Gourmet Traveller Wine up 13.8 per cent to 91,000, Halliday (was Wine Companion) up 81.3 per cent to 58,000 and Selector, up 10.5 per cent to 42,000.

Other widely read magazines in the category include Delicious, with a readership of 284,000 and Australian Gourmet Traveller now read by 205,000.

Print readership of General Interest magazines holds strong above 4 million

4,114,000 Australians, or 19.4% of the population, read at least one of the general interest magazines. Of the 14 magazines in the category, seven increased their print readership from a year ago, five decreased, one was unchanged and there was one new title: T Australia: The New York Times Style Magazine.

National Geographic was easily the most widely read paid magazine in the category with a print readership of 825,000, ahead of the second-placed Australian Geographic with a print readership of 388,000 and Reader’s Digest Australia in third with a print readership of 333,000.

Several magazines recorded large print readership increases led by Cosmos, up 34.8 per cent to 124,000, Australian Traveller, up 24.8 per cent to 161,000 and Vacations & Travel, up 52.4 per cent to 157,000.

There were also strong performances by several motoring magazines: Open Road (NSW) read by 1,349,000 (up 23.8 per cent), Road Ahead (Qld) now read by 672,000 (up 3.4 per cent), Horizons (WA) read by 287,000 (up 4.4 per cent) and SA Motor (SA) read by 243,000 (up 15.2 per cent).

For the new magazine in the category the readership numbers were impressive with T Australia: The New York Times Style Magazine achieving a readership of 123,000.

Home & Garden magazines are in a clear third place read by 3.8 million Australians

Home & Garden magazines are now read by 3,791,000 Australians accounting for over one-in-six Australians. There were four 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 (BH&G) with a print readership of 1,627,000 – almost 400,000 more than any other paid magazine.

The second most widely read is the freely available Bunnings magazine which is now read by 1,574,000, up 4.9 per cent on a year ago, and is the only other magazine in the category with a readership of over 1 million.

Other well-known and widely read magazines in this category include House & Garden with an impressive readership of 578,000, Gardening Australia with a readership of 437,000 and Home Beautiful with a readership of 305,000.

There were three paid magazines to grow their print readership over the last year led by Grand Designs Australia, up 8.4 per cent to 167,000, Belle, up 12.7 per cent to 133,000 and Inside Out, up 17.3 per cent to a readership of 122,000.

Mass Women’s magazines are read by over 2.7 million Australians in 2022

Mass Women’s magazines are now read by 2,708,000 Australians equal to 12.7 per cent of the population and include five magazines read by more than 500,000 people – more than any other category.

Easily the most widely read magazine in the category is Australian Women’s Weekly with a print readership of 1,234,000 ahead of second-placed Woman’s Day with a readership of 751,000 and third-placed New Idea with a readership of 612,000.

The popular ‘competition-focused’ magazines are also widely read led by That’s Life Mega Monthly with a readership of 569,000, up 1.8 per cent on a year ago, Take 5 Bumper Monthly read by 517,000, Take 5 (Weekly) with a readership of 481,000 and That’s Life read by 471,000.

Health & Family magazines increase their print readership by over 30% from a year ago

Overall the Health & Family magazines print readership increased by a substantial 33.9 per cent to 1,287,000 (6.1% of the population).

Four of the five continuing magazines in the category experienced an increase in print readership over the last year led by Wellbeing, up 55.6 per cent to a readership of 168,000.

There were other large increases in print readership for Women’s Health, up 10 per cent to 263,000, Healthy Food Guide, up 50.9 per cent to 261,000 and Diabetic Living, up 38.6 per cent to 230,000.

Women’s Fashion and Women’s Lifestyle magazine categories increase readership

There was growth in several smaller magazine categories with the Women’s Fashion, Women’s Lifestyle, Business, Financial & Airline, Motoring, Sports, Men’s Lifestyle, Fishing, Music & Movies, Motorcycle and Crafts categories all increasing their print readership in the 12 months to September 2022.

Women’s Fashion magazines performed well over the last year increasing category readership by 8.3 per cent to 831,000. The most widely read magazine in the category is Vogue Australia which increased its readership by 3.2 per cent to 356,000 while the relaunched Harper’s Bazaar has a readership of 143,000.

Women’s Lifestyle magazines were a standout performer over the last year growing overall print readership by 37.6 per cent to 333,000. The most widely read magazine in the category is Who with a readership of 152,000, up 2.7 per cent on a year ago while the biggest improver over the past year was English Women’s Weekly which increased its readership by 27.5 per cent to 116,000.

Business, Financial & Airline magazines increased their readership by 2.5 per cent to 1,016,000 over the last year led by The Monthly, up a large 28.8 per cent to 170,000, New Scientist which increased 12.3 per cent to 210,000 and Time magazine which was up 1.1 per cent to 185,000.

Motoring magazines are the seventh most widely read magazine category and experienced growth of 12.7 per cent over the past year for an overall print readership of 938,000, or 4.4% of the population with four of the six magazines in the category increasing their readership over the past year.

The magazines to increase their readership included Street Machine, up a large 31 per cent to 321,000, Wheels, up 3.7 per cent to 226,000, Unique Cars, up 21.1 per cent to 212,000 and Motor, up 14.6 per cent to 149,000. Another of the widely read magazines in the category is 4x4 Australia, read by 239,000.

Sports magazines had a good year increasing print readership by 0.4 per cent to 462,000 led by a large increase for the AFL Record, up 45.5 per cent to a readership of 272,000 and the Australian Golf Digest which increased readership by 8.8 per cent to 160,000.

Other magazines to perform strongly included Men’s Health, up 39.3 per cent to 337,000, Fresh Water Fishing Australia, up 6.1 per cent to 87,000, Rolling Stone, up 30.2 per cent to 220,000, Dirt Action, up 8.9 per cent to 49,000, and two magazines in the Crafts category: Homespun, up 20.4 per cent to 65,000 and Quilters Companion, up 1.6 per cent to 65,000.

Are Media’s ‘Now to Love’ digital platform is accessed by more than 1.7 million Australians

The results for the 12 months to September 2022 for Magazine Publishers are impressive with the 4 week digital platform audience data showing Are Media’s ‘Now to Love’ website attracting an audience of more than 1.7 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 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 over 3 million people while Australian Women’s Weekly reaches around 2.8 million people.

Other magazines with large cross-platform audiences include News Corp’s Taste.com.au Magazine with a total audience of over 4 million, Are Media’s Take 5 (weekly) with a total audience of almost 2.4 million, TV Week with a total audience of more than 2.3 million, Better Homes & Gardens with over 2.1 million readers and New Idea with more than 2 milllion readers in an average 4 weeks in the 12 months to September 2022.

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, 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 the readership of magazines has strengthened over the last year as we emeged from COVID-19 restrictions with readership in 12/17 magazine categories increasing compared to the same period a year ago:

For comments or more information please contact:
Roy Morgan - Enquiries
Office: +61 (03) 9224 5309
askroymorgan@roymorgan.com