Magazines matter to most Australians: over 65%, or 14.9 million, read magazines in print or online

Now 11.2 million Australians aged 14+ (49.2%) read print magazines according to the results released today from the Roy Morgan Australian Readership report for the 12 months to March 2025.

This market broadens significantly to over 14.9 million Australians aged 14+ (65.4%) 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 69,305 Australians aged 14+ in the 12 months to March 2025.

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 7,175,000, over 3 million ahead of any other category and reaching well over 30% of the population.

The second most widely read magazine category, Home & Garden Magazines with a readership of 4,140,000, just ahead of the third placed General Interest Magazines, on 3,969,000.

Other widely read categories include Mass Women’s Magazines read by 2,526,000 in fourth place, Business, Financial & Airline Magazines read by 1,372,000 just ahead of Health & Family Magazines with a readership of 1,216,000 in sixth place.

There were increases in readership for Women’s Lifestyle Magazines, up a large 23.6 per cent to 403,000 and Motorcycle Magazines, up an impressive 28.2 per cent to 244,000.

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 1,744,000 ahead of the second-placed The Australian Women’s Weekly on 1,180,000.

National Geographic is the third most widely read paid magazine and had a readership increase of 4.3 per cent to 1,047,000 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 2.2 per cent from a year earlier to 709,000 to be just in front of Woman’s Day in fifth with a readership of 678,000 – 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 2025

Australia's two most widely read free magazines are Coles Magazine and Fresh Ideas. Coles has a growing print readership of 5,245,000, up 2.4 per cent on a year ago, ahead of Fresh Ideas (from Woolworths) with a print readership of 4,645,000.

Bunnings Magazine is the third most widely read free magazine with a print readership of 1,840,000 ahead of two motoring magazines, the NRMA’s Open Road with a readership of 1,224,000 and RACQ’s Road Ahead which rounds out the top five free magazines with a readership of 558,000.

Other magazines to increase their print readership over the past year include Australian Geographic, up 9.6 per cent to 487,000, Gardening Australia, up 0.2 per cent to 456,000, TV Week, up 4.3 per cent to 358,000 and Street Machine, up 2.2 per cent to 317,000.

Top 25 Magazines by print readership – March 2025 (Magazines in bold are up on a year ago)

Full Magazine Print Readership Results available to view here.

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 (7,175,000 Australians, 31.4% of the population);
• Home & Garden (4,140,000 Australians, 18.1% of the population);
• General Interest (3,969,000 Australians, 17.4% of the population);
• Mass Women’s (2,526,000 Australians, 11.1% of the population);
• Business, Financial & Airline (1,372,000 Australians, 6.0% of the population).

Food & Entertainment magazines number one with total print readership of well over 7.1 million

Food & Entertainment is again Australia's best performing magazine category and is now read by 7,175,000 Australians, or 31.4% of the population – over 3 million ahead of any other category.

The free supermarket titles remain the clear leaders in the category led by Coles Magazine read by 5,245,000 Australians, up 124,000 (up 2.4 per cent) on a year ago ahead of Fresh Ideas (Woolworths) with a print readership of 4,645,000.

The most widely read paid magazines in the category are Delicious with a readership of 304,000, and Australian Gourmet Traveller which increased its readership by 0.3 per cent on a year ago to 233,000.

Home & Garden magazines are in second place and read by well over 4.1 million Australians

Home & Garden magazines are now read by 4,140,000 Australians accounting for almost one-in-five Australians (18.1% of the population). Half of the magazines in the category, eight 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 1,744,000, 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 1,840,000 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 growing readership of 709,000, up 2.2 per cent on a year ago, Gardening Australia with a readership of 456,000, up 0.2 per cent, Home Beautiful with a readership of 338,000, Country Style with a readership of 228,000, up 9.7 per cent, and Vogue Living with a readership of 221,000.

Other magazines to grow their print readership over the last year were Belle, up 2.5 per cent to 122,000, Good Organic Gardening, up 24.2 per cent to 118,000, Home Design, up 4.8 per cent to 101,000 and Australian Country, up 17.4 per cent to 73,000.

Print readership of General Interest magazines is at nearly 4 million Australians

3,969,000 Australians, or 17.4% of the population, read at least one of the general interest magazines in the year to March 2025 with six out of 14 magazines in the category increasing their readership.

National Geographic was the clear standout magazine and increased its readership by an impressive 4.3 per cent to 1,047,000 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 1,224,000, Road Ahead (RACQ) (Qld/NSW) with a readership of 558,000, Horizons (RAC) (WA), up 8 per cent to 298,000 and SA Move (was SA Motor) (RAA) read by 128,000.

Other General Interest magazines to increase their readership included: Australian Geographic, up 9.6 per cent 487,000, RM Williams Outback, with an increase of 12.9 per cent to 232,000 and Australian Traveller, with an increase of 17 per cent to 144,000.

Other widely read magazines include Reader’s Digest Australia with a readership of 316,000, The Big Issue with a readership of 251,000 and Cosmos, with a readership of 113,000.

Mass Women’s magazines are now read by over 2.5 million Australians

Mass Women’s magazines are now read by 2,526,000 Australians equal to one-in-nine Australians (11.1 per cent of the population). The category includes five 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 well over 1.1 million ahead of second-placed Woman’s Day with a print readership of 678,000 and New Idea with a print readership of 484,000.

The popular ‘competition-focused’ magazines are also widely read, led by That’s Life! Mega Monthly read by 512,000, Take 5 Bumper Monthly with a readership of 488,000, That’s Life! with a readership of 438,000 and Take 5 (Weekly) with a readership of 427,000.

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

Overall, the Business, Financial & Airline magazines category are read by 1,372,000 Australians (6% of the population), the fifth most widely read of all 15 magazine categories.

The big player in the category – and the only magazine in the category read by more than 300,000 people, was the Qantas Magazine, with a readership of 525,000.

There were several other magazines in the category with notable readership led by Forbes Australia with readership up 8.1 per cent to 286,000, Time magazine with a print readership of 206,000, New Scientist on 201,000, Money Magazine read by 179,000 and The Monthly with a print readership of 136,000.

Women’s Lifestyle 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 March 2025.

Women’s Lifestyle magazines increased readership by an impressive 23.6 per cent to 403,000. The category’s widest read magazine is the relaunched Cosmopolitan with a readership of 245,000.

Motorcycle magazines also saw an increase over the last year, up by 28.2 per cent to 244,000 with all four magazines in the category increasing their readership. The most widely read motorcycle magazine is Australian Motorcycle News with a readership of 98,000, up 2.3 per cent on a year ago.

The most impressive increase over the last year was Australian Adventure Bike Magazine, with readership almost doubling, up a massive 90.5 per cent to 84,000.  There were also increases for Dirt Action, up 31 per cent to 65,000 and Road Rider, up 7 per cent to 49,000.

Other magazines to perform strongly included Harper’s Bazaar, up 2.5 per cent to 153,000, Street Machine, up 2.2 per cent to 317,000, Diabetic Living, up 7.3 per cent to 301,000, Prevention, up 10 per cent to 90,000 and TV Week, up 4.3 per cent to 358,000.

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. 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 and The Australian Women’s Weekly and New Idea all exceed 1.5 million people in total cross-platform audiences*

Eight 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 2.1 million people just ahead of Woman’s Day with an audience of 2 million people.

The Australian Women’s Weekly has a cross-platform audience of over 1.6 million and New Idea has an audience of well over 1.5 million. In fifth place is National Geographic with an audience of 1.46 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 TV Week, Take 5 (Weekly) and Time with total cross-platform audiences well above 1 million and Take 5 Bumper Monthly, That’s Life and House & Garden with total cross-platform audiences greater than 900,000.

Other high performing cross-platform titles included Delicious, with a total audience of 1,060,000, and Vogue, with a total audience of 976,000, are estimated using Roy Morgan iris digital audiences*.

Michele Levine, CEO, Roy Morgan, says over 65% of Australians 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.

*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.

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.