Magazine brands command mass reach, connecting with 14.4 million Australians across print and online

Now over 14.4 million Australians aged 14+ (62.1% of the population) read magazines in print or online via the web or an app according to the results released today from the Roy Morgan Australian Readership report for the 12 months to March 2026.

Nearly three quarters of this extensive cross-platform audience, almost 10.8 million people, read print magazines – see below for more detail on print magazine readership. These are the latest findings from the Roy Morgan Single Source survey of 59,706 Australians aged 14+ in the 12 months to March 2026.

Leading magazines Better Homes and Gardens, Woman’s Day, The Australian Women’s Weekly and New Idea and all clearly exceed 1.5 million people in total cross-platform audiences**

Eight Australian magazines have total cross-platform audiences of over 1 million people led by Are Media’s Better Homes & Gardens and Woman’s Day, both mastheads with total cross platform audiences of over 2 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 Take 5 (weekly) with an audience of 1.5 million. It is important to note 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 TV Week, National Geographic and Take 5 Bumper Monthly with total cross-platform audiences above 1.2 million, House & Garden and Vogue Australia** with exceptional cross-platform audiences of over 850,000.

Top 10 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 12m to March 2026. All people 14+. **Vogue Australia digital numbers Roy Morgan iris from Jan 23; #National Geographic digital numbers Roy Morgan methodology; all other digital numbers Roy Morgan iris from Oct 25.

Seven magazine categories have a print readership of at least 1 million people

The most widely read magazine category is Food & Entertainment Magazines with a readership of 6,300,000, over 2 million ahead of any other category and reaching well over one-in-four Australians.

The second most widely read magazine category, is Home & Garden Magazines with a readership of 3,972,000, just ahead of the third placed General Interest Magazines, on 3,949,000.

Other widely read categories are Mass Women’s Magazines read by 2,364,000, Business, Financial & Airline Magazines read by 1,437,000, and up 4.7 per cent on a year ago, Health & Family Magazines with a readership of 1,231,000, and up 1.2 per cent on a year ago, and Motoring Magazines with a readership of 1,092,000 in seventh place, and up 19.1 per cent on a year ago.

There were increases in readership for Women’s Lifestyle Magazines, up a large 25 per cent to 503,000, and Sports Magazines, up 17.4 per cent to 585,000, and Computing, Gaming, & Info Tech Magazines, up 10.3 per cent to a readership of 274,000. Also increasing are Men’s Lifestyle Magazines, more than doubling and up 110.5 per cent to 80,000 – powered by the increase for Esquire Australia magazine which is aimed squarely at well-educated and high-income younger men.

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

Better Homes and Gardens is Australia’s most widely read paid magazine with a print readership of 1,624,000 ahead of the second-placed The Australian Women’s Weekly on 1,199,000, and up 1.6 per cent on a year ago, and National Geographic with a readership of 1,024,000.

Filling out the top six paid magazine are House & Garden with a readership of 731,000, and up 3.1 per cent on a year ago, Australian Geographic with a readership of 602,000, and up a large 23.7 per cent on a year ago, and Woman’s Day on 586,000.

Coles Magazine & Fresh Ideas are again the most widely read magazines again in early 2026

Australia's two most widely read free magazines are Coles Magazine and Fresh Ideas. Coles has a print readership of 4,437,000 ahead of Fresh Ideas (from Woolworths) with a print readership of 4,084,000.

Bunnings Magazine is the third most widely read free magazine with a print readership of 1,741,000 ahead of the NRMA’s Open Road with a readership of 1,215,000.

Other magazines to increase their print readership are Qantas Magazine, up 10.6 per cent to 580,000, Gardening Australia, up 0.3 per cent to 457,000, Vogue Australia, up 6 per cent to 445,000, Home Beautiful, up 22.3 per cent to 414,000, Street Machine, up 18.1 per cent to 374,000, Forbes Australia, up 29.8 per cent to 371,000, Australian Gourmet Traveller, up 43.2 per cent to 333,000, Diabetic Living, up 10.8 per cent to 333,000, and the Big Issue, up 27.6 per cent to a readership of 320,000.

The seven most read categories of magazines by print readership

• Food & Entertainment (6,300,000 Australians, 27.1% of the population);
• Home & Garden (3,972,000 Australians, 17.1% of the population);
• General Interest (3,949,000 Australians, 17.0% of the population);
• Mass Women’s (2,364,000 Australians, 10.2% of the population);
• Business, Financial & Airline (1,437,000 Australians, 6.2% of the population).
• Health & Family (1,231,000 Australians, 5.3% of the population);
• Motoring (1,092,000 Australians, 4.7% of the population).

Top 25 Magazines by print readership – March 2026 (Magazines in bold are up on a year ago)

Full Magazine Print Readership Results available to view here.

*The methodology revision in December 2024 means the figures for these magazines are not directly comparable year-over-year.

Overall, a total of 12 of the top 25 (top 23 comparable year-over-year – around half) most widely read magazines increased their readership over the last year.

Food & Entertainment magazines number one with total print readership of 6.3 million

Food & Entertainment is again Australia's best performing magazine category and is now read by 6,300,000 Australians, or 27.1% of the population – well over 2 million ahead of any other category.

The free supermarket titles remain the clear leaders in the category led by Coles Magazine read by 4,437,000 Australians ahead of Fresh Ideas (Woolworths) with a print readership of 4,084,000.

The most widely read paid magazines in the category are Australian Gourmet Traveller with a readership of 333,000, an increase of 43.2 per cent on a year ago, Eat Well which increased its readership by 63.7 per cent on a year ago to 168,000 and New Idea Food with a readership of 129,000, up 12.1 per cent.

Home & Garden magazines are in second place with 11/13 magazines increasing readership

Home & Garden magazines are now read by 3,972,000 Australians accounting for over one-in-six Australians (17.1% of the population). A clear majority of the magazines in the category, 11 out of 13 magazines, increased their print readership from a year ago.

Australia’s most widely read paid magazine is again Better Homes and Gardens with a print readership of 1,624,000, and over 800,000 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 1,741,000 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 a readership of 731,000, up 3.1 per cent on a year ago, Gardening Australia with a readership of 457,000, up 0.3 per cent on a year ago, Home Beautiful with a readership of 414,000, up 22.3 per cent, Country Style with a readership of 312,000, up 37 per cent, and Vogue Living with a readership of 262,000, up 18.5 per cent.

Other magazines to grow their print readership over the last year were Organic Gardener, up 31.9 per cent to 199,000, Belle, up 57.1 per cent to 192,000, Grand Designs Australia, up 20.5 per cent to 176,000, Home Design, up 43.8 per cent to 146,000, Good Organic Gardening, up 17.1 per cent to 139,000, and Australian Country, up a large 66.4 per cent to 121,000.

Print readership of General Interest magazines is now over 3.9 million Australians

3,949,000 Australians, or 17% of the population, read at least one of the general interest magazines in the year to March 2026 with six out of 11 magazines in the category increasing their readership.

National Geographic was the clear standout magazine with a print readership of 1,024,000 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 1,215,000, Road Ahead (RACQ) (Qld/NSW) with a readership of 541,000, Horizons (RAC) (WA), read by 275,000 and SA Move (was SA Motor) (RAA) read by 94,000.

General Interest magazines to increase their readership included: Australian Geographic, with an increase of 23.7 per cent to 602,000, the Big Issue, up 27.6 per cent to 320,000, RM Williams Outback, up 19 per cent to 277,000, Australian Traveller, with an increase of 59.6 per cent to 229,000, and Vacations & Travel, increasing its readership by 81.9 per cent to 201,000.

Mass Women’s magazines are now read by over 2.3 million Australians

Mass Women’s magazines are now read by 2,364,000 Australians well over one-in-ten Australians (10.2 per cent of the population). The category includes six 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 1,199,000, and up 1.6 per cent on a year ago, ahead of second-placed Woman’s Day with a print readership of 586,000 and New Idea with a print readership of 460,000.

The popular ‘competition-focused’ magazines are also widely read, led by That’s Life! Mega Monthly and Take 5 Bumper Monthly, both with a readership of 481,000, Take 5 (Weekly) with a readership of 401,000, and That’s Life! with a readership of 378,000.

Business, Financial & Airline magazines are read by over 1.4 million Australians

Overall, the Business, Financial & Airline magazines category is read by 1,437,000 Australians (6.2% of the population), an increase of 4.7 per cent from a year ago, the fifth most widely read category.

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 580,000, following an increase of 10.6 per cent on a year ago.

The second most widely read magazine in the category is Forbes Australia, up 29.8 per cent to 371,000 ahead of Money Magazine, increasing by 22.7 per cent to a print readership of 219,000.

Other magazines in the category with notable readership are led by New Scientist with a print readership of 195,000 followed by The Monthly, up 43 per cent to 194,000, and Time magazine on 137,000.

Health & Family, Women’s Lifestyle, and Motoring magazines increase their readership

There was growth in smaller magazine categories with the Health & Family, Women’s Lifestyle, Motoring, Sports, Computing, Gaming & Info Tech, and Men’s Lifestyle categories also increasing their print readership in the 12 months to March 2026.

Health & Family magazines increased readership by 1.2 per cent to 1,231,000. All four magazines in the category increased their readership including Diabetic Living, up 10.8 per cent to 333,000, WellBeing, following an increase of 42.8 per cent to 293,000, Healthy Food Guide with an increase of 30.9 per cent to 218,000, and Prevention, up a large 63.3 per cent to a print readership of 147,000.

Women’s Lifestyle magazines increased readership by an impressive 25 per cent to 503,000. The biggest increase was for English Women’s Weekly, up 28.1 per cent to a print readership of 106,000. There was also an impressive increase of 19.9 per cent for Mindfood to a readership of 138,000

Motoring magazines also saw an increase over the last year, up by 19.1 per cent to 1,092,000 with all five magazines in the category increasing their readership over the last year.

The most widely read magazine in the category is Street Machine, up 18.1 per cent on a year ago to a readership of 374,000, Just Cars magazine, up by a category leading 36.4 per cent to 310,000, 4x4 Australia, up 27.8 per cent to 293,000, Wheels, up 6.3 per cent to 284,000, and Unique Cars, up 36.4 per cent to a readership of 261,000.

Sports magazines increased readership by 17.4 per cent to 585,000 with the increase powered by increases for Golf Australia, up 60.2 per cent to 223,000, and Australian Golf Digest, up 55.3 per cent to 204,000, and the most widely read magazine in the category is the AFL Record read by 247,000.

Computing, Gaming & Info Tech magazines increased readership by 10.3 per cent to 274,000 with the increase powered by an increase for APC, up 56.8 per cent to a print readership of 132,000.

The Men’s Lifestyle magazines category received a boost with the inclusion of Esquire Australia magazine, with an increase of 110.5 per cent to a readership of 80,000.

Other magazines to perform strongly included the Women’s Fashion magazines Vogue Australia, up 6 per cent to 445,000, and Harper’s Bazaar, up 4.3 per cent to 160,000.

Michele Levine, CEO, Roy Morgan, says over 62% of Australians read magazines in print or online – including eight magazines with cross-platform audiences of 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.