Magazines matter to a clear majority of Australians: over 14.5 million read magazines in print or online

Now over 14.5 million Australians aged 14+ (63% 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 December 2025.

Nearly three quarters of this extensive cross-platform audience, over 10.7 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 64,960 Australians aged 14+ in the 12 months to December 2025.

Leading magazines Better Homes and Gardens, Woman’s Day, New Idea and The Australian Women’s Weekly all clearly 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 almost 2 million people just ahead of Woman’s Day with an audience of well over 1.9 million people.

Filling out the top four, New Idea and The Australian Women’s Weekly both have cross-platform audiences of over 1.6 million. In fifth place is Take 5 (weekly) with an audience of over 1.4 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 National Geographic and TV Week with total cross-platform audiences above 1.3 million and Take 5 Bumper Monthly, House & Garden, and Vogue Australia** with exceptional cross-platform audiences of over 900,000.

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 Dec. 2025. 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 over 1 million people

The most widely read magazine category is Food & Entertainment Magazines with a readership of 6,296,000, over 2 million ahead of any other category and reaching over 27% of the population.

The second most widely read magazine category, Home & Garden Magazines with a readership of 3,920,000, just ahead of the third placed General Interest Magazines, on 3,895,000.

Other widely read categories are Mass Women’s Magazines read by 2,370,000, Business, Financial & Airline Magazines read by 1,385,000, Health & Family Magazines with a readership of 1,203,000, and Motoring Magazines with a readership of 1,079,000 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 33.8 per cent to 491,000, Sports Magazines, up 4.9 per cent to 556,000, Computing, Gaming & Info Tech Magazines, up 10.6 per cent to 296,000. Also increasing are Men’s Lifestyle Magazines, up 71.7 per cent to 75,000 – powered by the increase for Esquire Australia magazine which is aimed squarely at well-educated and high-income younger men, 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 1,593,000 ahead of the second-placed The Australian Women’s Weekly on 1,172,000, and National Geographic with a readership of 1,001,000.

Filling out the top six paid magazine are House & Garden with a readership of 734,000, and up 1.6 per cent on a year ago, Woman’s Day on 606,000, and Australian Geographic with a readership of 559,000.

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 4,386,000 ahead of Fresh Ideas (from Woolworths) with a print readership of 4,118,000.

Bunnings Magazine is the third most widely read free magazine with a print readership of 1,735,000 ahead of the NRMA’s Open Road with a readership of 1,205,000.

Other magazines to increase their print readership are Qantas Magazine, up 8 per cent to 567,000, Gardening Australia, up 5.8 per cent to 464,000, Take 5 (Weekly), up 1.7 per cent to 437,000, Home Beautiful, up 13.1 per cent to 400,000, Street Machine, up 22.3 per cent to 383,000, Forbes Australia, up 21.6 per cent to 340,000, Diabetic Living, up 7.9 per cent to 334,000, Australian Gourmet Traveller, up 30.6 per cent to 313,000, and Just Cars, up a stunning 39.9 per cent to a readership of 308,000 – the largest percentage increase of any of the top 25 most widely read magazines.

The five most read categories of magazines by print readership

• Food & Entertainment (6,296,000 Australians, 27.2% of the population);
• Home & Garden (3,920,000 Australians, 17.0% of the population);
• General Interest (3,895,000 Australians, 16.9% of the population);
• Mass Women’s (2,370,000 Australians, 10.3% of the population);
• Business, Financial & Airline (1,385,000 Australians, 6.0% of the population).

Food & Entertainment magazines number one with total print readership of over 6.2 million

Food & Entertainment is again Australia's best performing magazine category and is now read by 6,296,000 Australians, or 27.2% 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 4,386,000 Australians ahead of Fresh Ideas (Woolworths) with a print readership of 4,118,000.

The most widely read paid magazines in the category are Australian Gourmet Traveller with a readership of 313,000, an increase of 30.6 per cent on a year ago, Eat Well which increased its readership by 44.8 per cent on a year ago to 161,000 and New Idea Food with a readership of 134,000, up 15.7 per cent.

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

Home & Garden magazines are now read by 3,920,000 Australians accounting for over one-in-six Australians (17.0% of the population). A clear majority of the magazines in the category, 11 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 1,593,000, 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 1,735,000 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 734,000, up 1.6 per cent on a year ago, Gardening Australia with a readership of 464,000, up 5.8 per cent on a year ago, Home Beautiful with a readership of 400,000, up 13.1 per cent, Country Style with a readership of 306,000, up 33.9 per cent, and Vogue Living with a readership of 256,000, up 11.4 per cent.

Other magazines to grow their print readership over the last year were Organic Gardener, up 21.3 per cent to 188,000, Belle, up 40.9 per cent to 185,000, Grand Designs Australia, up 14.3 per cent to 171,000, Good Organic Gardening, up 19.3 per cent to 140,000, Home Design, up 31.7 per cent to 137,000 and Australian Country, up a large 69.9 per cent to 116,000.

Print readership of General Interest magazines is at 3.9 million Australians

3,895,000 Australians, or 16.9% of the population, read at least one of the general interest magazines in the year to December 2025 with six out of 11 magazines in the category increasing their readership.

National Geographic was the clear standout magazine with a print readership of 1,001,000 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 1,205,000, Road Ahead (RACQ) (Qld/NSW) with a readership of 548,000, Horizons (RAC) (WA), read by 276,000 and SA Move (was SA Motor) (RAA) read by 92,000.

General Interest magazines to increase their readership included: Australian Geographic, with an increase of 16.4 per cent to 559,000, RM Williams Outback, up 26.5 per cent to 286,000, the Big Issue, up 18.9 per cent to 307,000, Australian Traveller, with an increase of 60.6 per cent to 217,000, and Vacations & Travel, increasing its readership by 69.5 per cent to 187,000.

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

Mass Women’s magazines are now read by 2,370,000 Australians well over one-in-ten Australians (10.3 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 1,172,000, ahead of second-placed Woman’s Day with a print readership of 606,000 and New Idea with a print readership of 488,000.

The popular ‘competition-focused’ magazines are also widely read, led by That’s Life! Mega Monthly read by 477,000, Take 5 Bumper Monthly with a readership of 468,000, Take 5 (Weekly) with a readership of 437,000, an increase of 1.7 per cent from a year ago and That’s Life! with a readership of 408,000.

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

Overall, the Business, Financial & Airline magazines category are read by 1,385,000 Australians (6.0% 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 567,000, following an increase of 8.0 per cent on a year ago.

The second most widely read magazine in the category is Forbes Australia, up 21.6 per cent to 340,000 ahead of Money Magazine, increasing by 14.9 per cent to a print readership of 211,000.

Other magazines in the category with notable readership are led by New Scientist with a print readership of 192,000 followed by The Monthly, up 16.1 per cent to 173,000, and Time magazine on 140,000.

Top 25 Magazines by print readership – Dec. 2025 (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 11 of the top 25 (top 23 comparable year-over-year – nearly half) most widely read magazines increased their readership over the last year.

Women’s Lifestyle, Motoring, Men’s Lifestyle, and Sports magazines increase their readership

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

Women’s Lifestyle magazines increased readership by an impressive 33.8 per cent to 491,000. The biggest increase was for MindFood, up 7.9 per cent to a print readership of 125,000. There was also an impressive increase of 28.8 per cent to a readership of 102,000 for English Women’s Weekly.

Motoring magazines also saw an increase over the last year, up by 19.1 per cent to 1,079,000 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 22.3 per cent on a year ago to a readership of 383,000, Just Cars magazine, up by a category leading 39.9 per cent to 308,000, 4x4 Australia, up 24.7 per cent to 285,000 and Unique Cars, up 37.1 per cent to a readership of 263,000.

Sports magazines increased readership by 4.9 per cent to 556,000 with the increase powered by increases for Golf Australia, up 31.3 per cent to 207,000, and Australian Golf Digest, up 33 per cent to 195,000, and the most widely read magazine in the category is the AFL Record read by 247,000.

The Men’s Lifestyle magazines category received a boost with the inclusion of Esquire Australia magazine, with an increase of 71.7 per cent to a readership of 75,000.

Other magazines to perform strongly included Health and Family magazines Wellbeing, up 9.9 per cent to 260,000, Healthy Food Guide, up 14.9 per cent to 209,000, and Prevention, up 42.7 per cent to 134,000, along with increases for PC PowerPlay, up 20.1 per cent to 137,000, APC, up 46.3 per cent to 123,000, the relaunched Elle Australia on 179,000, and Harper’s Bazaar, up 6.4 per cent to 161,000.

Michele Levine, CEO, Roy Morgan, says 63% of Australians read magazines in print or online – including eight 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.

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.