Magazines matter to a clear majority of Australians: over 14.6 million read magazines in print or online
Now 10.9 million Australians aged 14+ read print magazines according to the results released today from the Roy Morgan Australian Readership report for the 12 months to September 2025.
This market broadens significantly to over 14.6 million Australians aged 14+ 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 65,956 Australians aged 14+ in the 12 months to September 2025.
Seven 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 6,612,000, over 2.5 million ahead of any other category and reaching over 28% of the population.
The second most widely read magazine category, Home & Garden Magazines with a readership of 3,976,000, just ahead of the third placed General Interest Magazines, on 3,916,000.
Other widely read categories are Mass Women’s Magazines read by 2,447,000, Business, Financial & Airline Magazines read by 1,368,000, Health & Family Magazines with a readership of 1,190,000, and Motoring Magazines with a readership of 1,005,000 in seventh place, and up 8.8 per cent on a year ago.
There were increases in readership for Women’s Lifestyle Magazines, up a large 64.2 per cent to 508,000, and Men’s Lifestyle Magazines, up 63.8 per cent to 65,000 – with Esquire Australia magazine, which launched in Australia in 2023, included in the readership release for the first time. Esquire Australia is aimed squarely at well-educated and high income younger men aged under 35, and the results so far suggest its readership is highly indexed to this key demographic.
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 1,658,000 ahead of the second-placed The Australian Women’s Weekly on 1,180,000, and National Geographic with a readership of 1,013,000.
The fourth most widely read paid magazine is House & Garden with a readership of 718,000 in front of Woman’s Day with a readership of 640,000, New Idea with a readership of 508,000, and in seventh place among paid magazines is the Australian Geographic with a readership of 504,000.
Coles Magazine & Fresh Ideas are the most widely read magazines again in late 2025
Australia's two most widely read free magazines are Coles Magazine and Fresh Ideas. Coles has a print readership of 4,699,000 ahead of Fresh Ideas (from Woolworths) with a print readership of 4,320,000.
Bunnings Magazine is the third most widely read free magazine with a print readership of 1,731,000 ahead of two motoring magazines, the NRMA’s Open Road with a readership of 1,201,000 and RACQ’s Road Ahead which rounds out the top five free magazines with a readership up 0.8 per cent to 584,000.
Other magazines to increase their print readership are Qantas Magazine, up 0.9 per cent to 541,000, Gardening Australia, up 9.9 per cent to 473,000, Take 5 (Weekly), up 3.6 per cent to 445,000, Home Beautiful, up 3.0 per cent to 379,000, Street Machine, up 9.3 per cent to 345,000, Forbes Australia, up 15.1 per cent to 311,000 – the largest percentage increase of any of the top 25 most widely read magazines.
Top 25 Magazines by print readership – Sept. 2025 (Magazines in bold are up on a year ago)
| Publication | Sept 2024 | Sept 2025 | % Change |
| ‘000s | ‘000s | % | |
| Coles Magazine | 5,346 | 4,699 | -12.1% |
| Fresh Ideas | 4,767 | 4,320 | -9.4% |
| Bunnings Magazine | 1,925 | 1,731 | -10.1% |
| Better Homes and Gardens | 1,825 | 1,658 | -9.1% |
| Open Road (NRMA) (NSW/Vic/Qld) | 1,335 | 1,201 | -10.0% |
| The Australian Women’s Weekly | 1,204 | 1,180 | -2.0% |
| National Geographic | 1,053 | 1,013 | -3.8% |
| House & Garden | 727 | 718 | -1.2% |
| Woman’s Day | 712 | 640 | -10.0% |
| Road Ahead (RACQ) (Qld/NSW) | 579 | 584 | 0.8% |
| Qantas Magazine | 536 | 541 | 0.9% |
| New Idea | 509 | 508 | 0.0% |
| Australian Geographic | 512 | 504 | -1.6% |
| That’s Life! Mega Monthly | 547 | 499 | -8.7% |
| Take 5 Bumper Monthly | 546 | 481 | -12.0% |
| Gardening Australia | 430 | 473 | 9.9% |
| Take 5 (Weekly) | 430 | 445 | 3.6% |
| That’s Life! | 466 | 437 | -6.2% |
| Vogue Australia | 479 | 428 | -10.7% |
| Home Beautiful | 367 | 379 | 3.0% |
| Street Machine | 316 | 345 | 9.3% |
| TV Week | 342 | 333 | -2.6% |
| Reader’s Digest Australia | 359 | 325 | -9.5% |
| Forbes Australia | 270 | 311 | 15.1% |
| Diabetic Living | 316 | 307 | -2.7% |
Overall, a total of seven 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 (6,612,000 Australians, 28.7% of the population);
- Home & Garden (3,976,000 Australians, 17.3% of the population);
- General Interest (3,916,000 Australians, 17.0% of the population);
- Mass Women’s (2,447,000 Australians, 10.6% of the population);
- Business, Financial & Airline (1,368,000 Australians, 5.9% of the population).
Food & Entertainment magazines number one with total print readership of over 6.6 million
Food & Entertainment is again Australia's best performing magazine category and is now read by 6,612,000 Australians, or 28.7% of the population – well over 2.5 million ahead of any other category.
The free supermarket titles remain the clear leaders in the category led by Coles Magazine read by 4,699,000 Australians ahead of Fresh Ideas (Woolworths) with a print readership of 4,320,000.
The most widely read paid magazines in the category are Australian Gourmet Traveller with a readership of 288,000, an increase of 18 per cent on a year ago, Eat Well which increased its readership by 15.2 per cent on a year ago to 133,000 and New Idea Food with a readership of 131,000, up 3.4 per cent.
Home & Garden magazines are in second place with 9/13 magazines increasing readership
Home & Garden magazines are now read by 3,976,000 Australians accounting for over one-in-six Australians (17.3% of the population). A clear majority of the magazines in the category, nine out of 13 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 1,658,000, and almost 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 1,731,000 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 readership of 718,000, Gardening Australia with a readership of 473,000, up 9.9 per cent on a year ago, Home Beautiful with a readership of 379,000, up 3.0 per cent, Country Style with a readership of 288,000, up 32.3 per cent, and Vogue Living with a readership of 220,000.
Other magazines to grow their print readership over the last year were Organic Gardener, up 23.4 per cent to 182,000, Belle, up 36.9 per cent to 170,000, Grand Designs Australia, up 7.2 per cent to 167,000, Good Organic Gardening, up 24.2 per cent to 136,000, Home Design, up 1.5 per cent to 112,000 and Australian Country, up 58 per cent to 103,000.
Print readership of General Interest magazines is at over 3.9 million Australians
3,916,000 Australians, or 17% of the population, read at least one of the general interest magazines in the year to September 2025 with six out of 14 magazines in the category increasing their readership.
National Geographic was the clear standout magazine with a print readership of 1,013,000 to be one of only three paid magazines read by over 1 million Australians.
There were also strong performances by motoring club magazines: Open Road (NRMA) (NSW/Vic/Qld) with a readership of 1,201,000, Road Ahead (RACQ) (Qld/NSW) with a readership of 584,000, up 0.8 per cent, Horizons (RAC) (WA), read by 278,000 and SA Move (was SA Motor) (RAA) read by 100,000.
Other General Interest magazines to increase their readership included: RM Williams Outback, with an increase of 24.1 per cent to 277,000, Australian Traveller, with an increase of 37.7 per cent to 182,000, Vacations & Travel, increasing its readership by 49.4 per cent to 172,000 and Cosmos, increasing its readership by 24.8 per cent to 141,000 and T Australia: The New York Times Style Magazine which increased its readership by 23.9 per cent to 94,000.
Other widely read magazines include Australian Geographic with a readership of 504,000, Reader’s Digest Australia with a readership of 325,000 and The Big Issue with a readership of 270,000.
Mass Women’s magazines are now read by over 2.4 million Australians
Mass Women’s magazines are now read by 2,447,000 Australians well over one-in-ten Australians (10.6 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 1,180,000, ahead of second-placed Woman’s Day with a print readership of 640,000 and New Idea with a print readership of 508,000.
The popular ‘competition-focused’ magazines are also widely read, led by That’s Life! Mega Monthly read by 499,000, Take 5 Bumper Monthly with a readership of 481,000, Take 5 (Weekly) with a readership of 445,000, an increase of 3.6 per cent from a year ago and That’s Life! with a readership of 437,000.
Business, Financial & Airline magazines are read by almost 1.4 million Australians
Overall, the Business, Financial & Airline magazines category are read by 1,368,000 Australians (5.9% of the population), the fifth most widely read of all 14 magazine categories.
The big player in the category – and one of only two magazines in the category read by more than 300,000 people – was the Qantas Magazine, with a readership of 541,000, following an increase of 0.9 per cent on a year ago.
The second most widely read magazine in the category is Forbes Australia, up 15.1 per cent to 311,000 ahead of Money Magazine, increasing by 6.5 per cent to a print readership of 202,000.
Other magazines in the category with notable readership are led by New Scientist with a print readership of 198,000 followed by The Monthly, up 8.2 per cent to 165,000, and Time magazine on 158,000.
Women’s Lifestyle, Motoring and Men’s Lifestyle magazines increase their readership
There was growth in smaller magazine categories with the Women’s Lifestyle, Motoring, and Men’s Lifestyle categories also increasing their print readership in the 12 months to September 2025.
Women’s Lifestyle magazines increased readership by an impressive 64.2 per cent to 508,000. The category’s widest read magazine is the relaunched Cosmopolitan with a readership of 222,000, and the biggest increase was for MindFood, up 26.6 per cent to a print readership of 128,000. There was also an impressive increase of 21.1 per cent to a readership of 100,000 for English Women’s Weekly.
Motoring magazines also saw an increase over the last year, up by 8.8 per cent to 1,005,000 with four out of the five magazines in the category increasing their readership over the last year.
The most widely read magazine in the category is Street Machine, up 9.3 per cent on a year ago to a readership of 345,000, Just Cars magazine, up by a category leading 21.1 per cent to 276,000, 4x4 Australia, up 9.5 per cent to 264,000 and Unique Cars, up by 7.4 per cent to a readership of 226,000.
The Men’s Lifestyle magazines category received a boost with the inclusion of Esquire Australia magazine, with an increase of 63.8 per cent to a readership of 65,000.
Other magazines to perform strongly included Health and Family magazines Wellbeing, up 1.3 per cent to 264,000, Healthy Food Guide, up 4.4 per cent to 186,000, and Prevention, up 24.3 per cent to 118,000, along with increases for Golf Australia, up 18.2 per cent to 186,000, Harper’s Bazaar, up 14.6 per cent to 166,000, and APC, up 23.1 per cent to 105,000.
Top 10 Magazines – Total Cross-Platform Audience*
| Print (4 weeks) | Digital (4 weeks) (incl. Apple News) | Total CPA (4 weeks) (incl. Apple News) | |
| Publication | 12m to Sept 2025 (000's) | 12m to Sept 2025 (000's) | 12m to Sept 2025 (000's) |
| Better Homes and Gardens | 1,658 | 425 | 2,005 |
| Woman's Day | 1,378 | 632 | 1,917 |
| The Australian Women's Weekly | 1,180 | 576 | 1,651 |
| New Idea | 1,089 | 626 | 1,637 |
| National Geographic | 1,013 | 430 | 1,407 |
| Take 5 (weekly) | 803 | 557 | 1,301 |
| TV Week | 726 | 557 | 1,246 |
| Take 5 Bumper Monthly | 481 | 557 | 992 |
| House & Garden | 718 | 228 | 930 |
| Time | 401 | 523 | 903 |
*Total cross-platform audience includes print (average issue readership) and digital (website visitation and app usage), in an average 4 weeks. The Top 10 are based on cross-platform audiences using Roy Morgan digital audiences. #For additional detail on the platforms available for each magazine visit the Roy Morgan website.
Leading magazines Better Homes and Gardens, Woman’s Day, The Australian Women’s Weekly and New Idea all exceed 1.5 million people in total cross-platform audiences*
Seven 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 million people just ahead of Woman’s Day with an audience of over 1.9 million people.
Filling out the top four, The Australian Women’s Weekly and New Idea both have cross-platform audiences of over 1.6 million. In fifth place is National Geographic with an audience of over 1.4 million. It is important to note that The Australian Women's Weekly has 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 Take 5 (Weekly) and TV Week with total cross-platform audiences well above 1.2 million and Take 5 Bumper Monthly, House & Garden and Time with total cross-platform audiences greater than 900,000.
Another high performing cross-platform title is Vogue, with a total audience of 950,000, estimated using Roy Morgan iris digital audiences*.
Michele Levine, CEO, Roy Morgan, says over 63% of Australians read magazines in print or online – including seven magazines with cross-platform audiences over 1 million people:
“The latest Roy Morgan readership survey shows over 14.6 million Australians (63.5% of all Australians aged 14+) now read magazines whether in print or online and print readership is almost half the population at 10.9 million (47.4% of all Australians).
“There are standout results for several magazines with seven magazines reaching over 1 million people via their cross-platform audiences. Better Homes and Gardens, Woman’s Day, New Idea and The Australian Women’s Weekly are standouts each with cross-platform audiences over 1.5 million.
“The print readership results show many magazines have large audiences including seven with print readership of 1 million plus Australians and another six with print readership of at least 500,000 people. At a broader level over 30 magazines have a print readership of at least 250,000 people.
“The most widely read magazines draw large and valuable audiences for advertisers to their print editions with over 1.6 million people now reading Better Homes and Gardens, almost 1.2 million that read The Australian Women’s Weekly and over 1 million reading National Geographic.
“Some of the leading magazines to enjoy growth in readership over the last year included Road Ahead (RACQ), up 0.8 per cent to 584,000, Qantas Magazine, up 0.9 per cent to 541,000, Gardening Australia, up 9.9 per cent to 473,000, Take 5 (Weekly), up 3.6 per cent to 445,000, Home Beautiful, up 3 per cent to 379,000 and Street Machine, up 9.3 per cent to 345,000.
“At a category level the standouts were Women’s Lifestyle Magazines which increased print readership by a stunning 64.2 per cent to 508,000, and Motoring Magazines which increased print readership by 8.8 per cent to 1,005,000 – the seventh most widely read magazine category, and Men’s Lifestyle Magazines, up 63.8 per cent to 65,000.
“The leading magazines categories continue to draw massive, diverse and lucrative audiences of Australians. Over 6.6 million people read Food & Entertainment Magazines, representing over 28% of all Australians, nearly 4 million people read Home & Garden Magazines, over 3.9 million read General Interest Magazines and over 2.4 million read Mass Women’s Magazines.
“The full cross-platform and print readership results for the year to September 2025 show magazines are reaching almost two-thirds of Australians – 14.6 million (63.5%) either in print or online via the web or app. Magazines remain an excellent medium to reach valuable audiences of all ages that have more discretionary income to spend than the average Australian.”
To learn more about Roy Morgan’s Readership research, call (+61) (3) 9224 5309 or email askroymorgan@roymorgan.com.
*Roy Morgan iris digital audience measurement.
ThinkNewsBrands, in collaboration with Roy Morgan and Ipsos Australia has responded to the media industry’s calls for clarity and consistency by integrating Ipsos iris digital audience data in Total News Publishing within Roy Morgan Single Source. From this release onwards, Roy Morgan digital measurement data has been replaced with Ipsos iris measurement data (in most cases dating back to January 2023) for brands or entities within Total News Publishing. This digital data is referred to as Roy Morgan iris.
Source: Total News Publishing as measured by Roy Morgan; including Roy Morgan Single Source, Australia’s largest consumer survey representative of Australians aged 14+, and Roy Morgan iris for digital audiences. All audience data is based on monthly readership averaged over the 12 months to March 2025, unless otherwise stated. Total News Publishing is defined as Australians aged 14+ reading news in print, newspapers, magazines, or newspaper inserted magazines, and/or news in digital formats, including websites, apps as well as off-platform such as Facebook, Apple and Google News. Total News Publishing audience measurement is independently audited by Milton Data.
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.
Margin of Error
The margin of error to be allowed for in any estimate depends mainly on the number of interviews on which it is based. Margin of error gives indications of the likely range within which estimates would be 95% likely to fall, expressed as the number of percentage points above or below the actual estimate. Allowance for design effects (such as stratification and weighting) should be made as appropriate.
| Sample Size | Percentage Estimate |
| 40% – 60% | 25% or 75% | 10% or 90% | 5% or 95% | |
| 1,000 | ±3.0 | ±2.7 | ±1.9 | ±1.3 |
| 5,000 | ±1.4 | ±1.2 | ±0.8 | ±0.6 |
| 7,500 | ±1.1 | ±1.0 | ±0.7 | ±0.5 |
| 10,000 | ±1.0 | ±0.9 | ±0.6 | ±0.4 |
| 20,000 | ±0.7 | ±0.6 | ±0.4 | ±0.3 |
| 50,000 | ±0.4 | ±0.4 | ±0.3 | ±0.2 |
