Magazines matter to clear majority (64%) of Australians: over 14.7 million read magazines in print or online

Now 11 million Australians aged 14+ (48.2%) read print magazines according to the results released today from the Roy Morgan Australian Readership report for the 12 months to June 2025.

This market broadens significantly to over 14.7 million Australians aged 14+ (64.2%) 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 67,653 Australians aged 14+ in the 12 months to June 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 6,925,000, over 2.5 million ahead of any other category and reaching over 30% of the population.

The second most widely read magazine category, Home & Garden Magazines with a readership of 4,064,000, just ahead of the third placed General Interest Magazines, on 3,979,000.

Other widely read categories include Mass Women’s Magazines read by 2,505,000 in fourth place, Business, Financial & Airline Magazines read by 1,386,000 just ahead of Health & Family Magazines with a readership of 1,212,000 in sixth place.

There were increases in readership for Motoring Magazines, up a significant 7.6 per cent to 978,000, Women’s Lifestyle Magazines, up a large 46.4 per cent to 464,000,

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 1,696,000 ahead of the second-placed The Australian Women’s Weekly on 1,206,000, following an increase of 0.6 per cent on a year ago.

National Geographic is the third most widely read paid magazine and had a readership of 1,019,000 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 1.6 per cent from a year earlier to 722,000 to be in front of Woman’s Day in fifth with a readership of 634,000 – 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 mid-2025

Australia's two most widely read free magazines are Coles Magazine and Fresh Ideas. Coles has a print readership of 4,995,000 ahead of Fresh Ideas (from Woolworths) with a print readership of 4,477,000.

Bunnings Magazine is the third most widely read free magazine with a print readership of 1,789,000 ahead of two motoring magazines, the NRMA’s Open Road with a readership of 1,236,000 and RACQ’s Road Ahead which rounds out the top five free magazines with a readership of 563,000.

Other magazines to increase their print readership are Australian Geographic, up 10 per cent to 512,000, Gardening Australia, up 1.7 per cent to 455,000, TV Week, up 4.3 per cent to 346,000, Street Machine, up 8.9 per cent to 341,000, Delicious, up 3.2 per cent to 329,000 and Diabetic Living, up 11.7 per cent to 314,000 – the largest percentage increase of any of the top 25 most widely read magazines.

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

Full Magazine Print Readership Results available to view here.

Overall, a total of nine 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 (6,925,000 Australians, 30.2% of the population);
• Home & Garden (4,064,000 Australians, 17.7% of the population);
• General Interest (3,979,000 Australians, 17.4% of the population);
• Mass Women’s (2,505,000 Australians, 10.9% of the population);
• Business, Financial & Airline (1,386,000 Australians, 6.0% of the population).

Food & Entertainment magazines number one with total print readership of over 6.9 million

Food & Entertainment is again Australia's best performing magazine category and is now read by 6,925,000 Australians, or 30.2% 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 4,995,000 Australians ahead of Fresh Ideas (Woolworths) with a print readership of 4,477,000.

The most widely read paid magazines in the category are Delicious with a readership of 329,000, an increase of 3.2 per cent on a year ago, Australian Gourmet Traveller which increased its readership by 21.1 per cent on a year ago to 276,000 and Eat Well with a readership of 121,000, up 17.5 per cent.

Home & Garden magazines are in second place with 9/13 magazines increasing readership

Home & Garden magazines are now read by 4,064,000 Australians accounting for over one-in-six Australians (17.7% 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 1,696,000, 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 1,789,000 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 722,000, up 1.6 per cent on a year ago, Gardening Australia with a readership of 455,000, up 1.7 per cent, Home Beautiful with a readership of 360,000, Country Style with a readership of 258,000, up 21.6 per cent, and Vogue Living with a readership of 227,000.

Other magazines to grow their print readership over the last year were Organic Gardener, up 17.2 per cent to 169,000, Grand Designs Australia, up 18.6 per cent to 166,000, Belle, up 13.1 per cent to 139,000, Good Organic Gardening, up 27 per cent to 127,000, Home Design, up 5.7 per cent to 108,000 and Australian Country, up 53 per cent to 84,000.

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

3,979,000 Australians, or 17.4% of the population, read at least one of the general interest magazines in the year to June 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 1,019,000 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 1,236,000, Road Ahead (RACQ) (Qld/NSW) with a readership of 563,000, Horizons (RAC) (WA), up 4.8 per cent to 293,000 and SA Move (was SA Motor) (RAA) read by 119,000.

Other General Interest magazines to increase their readership included: Australian Geographic, up 10 per cent 512,000, RM Williams Outback, with an increase of 27.1 per cent to 267,000, Australian Traveller, with an increase of 32.8 per cent to 168,000 and Cosmos, increasing its readership by 21.3 per cent to 137,000.

Other widely read magazines include Reader’s Digest Australia with a readership of 336,000, The Big Issue with a readership of 265,000 and Vacations & Travel, with a readership of 142,000.

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

Mass Women’s magazines are now read by 2,505,000 Australians well over one-in-ten Australians (10.9 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 1,206,000, an increase of 0.6 per cent on a year ago ahead of second-placed Woman’s Day with a print readership of 634,000 and New Idea with a print readership of 501,000.

The popular ‘competition-focused’ magazines are also widely read, led by That’s Life! Mega Monthly read by 502,000, Take 5 Bumper Monthly with a readership of 481,000, Take 5 (Weekly) with a readership of 440,000 and That’s Life! with a readership of 438,000.

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

Overall, the Business, Financial & Airline magazines category are read by 1,386,000 Australians (6% of the population), the fifth most widely read of all 13 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 538,000, following an increase of 0.2 per cent on a year ago.

The second most widely read magazine in the category is Forbes Australia, up 17.6 per cent to 305,000 ahead of Money Magazine, increasing by 12.4 per cent to a print readership of 205,000.

There were other magazines in the category with notable readership led by New Scientist with a print readership of 202,000 followed by Time magazine on 190,000 and The Monthly on 145,000.

Women’s Lifestyle and Motoring magazines increase their readership

There was growth in smaller magazine categories with the Women’s Lifestyle and Motoring categories also increasing their print readership in the 12 months to June 2025.

Women’s Lifestyle magazines increased readership by an impressive 46.4 per cent to 464,000. The category’s widest read magazine is the relaunched Cosmopolitan with a readership of 240,000, and the biggest increase was for MindFood, up 36.2 per cent to a print readership of 121,000.

Motoring magazines also saw an increase over the last year, up by 7.6 per cent to 978,000 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 8.9 per cent on a year ago to a readership of 341,000, Wheels magazine, up 4.8 per cent to 281,000, Just Cars, up by a category leading 19.4 per cent to 263,000 and 4x4 Australia, up by 5.9 per cent to a readership of 251,000.

Other magazines to perform strongly included TV Week, up 4.3 per cent to 346,000, Diabetic Living, up 11.7 per cent to 314,000, Healthy Food Guide, up 2.4 per cent to 176,000, Golf Australia, up 6.8 per cent to 167,000, Harper’s Bazaar, up 11.2 per cent to 161,000, PC PowerPlay, up 9.5 per cent to 122,000, Prevention, up 22.7 per cent to 109,000 and APC, up 5.9 per cent to 94,000.

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, 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 million people just ahead of Woman’s Day with an audience of 1.9 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 1.44 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), TV Week and Time with total cross-platform audiences well above 1 million and Take 5 Bumper Monthly, House & Garden and That’s Life with total cross-platform audiences greater than 800,000.

Other high performing cross-platform titles which include Delicious, with a total audience of 1,202,000, and Vogue, with a total audience of 968,000, are estimated using Roy Morgan iris digital audiences*.

Michele Levine, CEO, Roy Morgan, says over 64% 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.