More than 11.5 million Australians aged 14+ (51.6 per cent) read print magazines, up 0.5 per cent on a year ago, according to new research

That findings are from the Roy Morgan Australian Readership report which tracked data for the 12 months to June 2024.

The most widely read magazine category remains Food & Entertainment Magazines with a readership of 7,396,000, or 33 per cent of the population, up 0.3 per cent on a year ago and reaching a third of the population.

The second most widely read magazine category is Home & Garden Magazines, which increased its print readership by 1.6 per cent to 4,248,000, accounting for almost one in five Australians (19 per cent of the population).

Other widely read categories include Mass Women’s Magazines read by 2,639,000, Business, Financial & Airline Magazines which jumped 12.7 per cent to 1,393,000 just ahead of Health & Family Magazines with a readership of 1,236,000.

There were also improvements for Women’s Fashion Magazines, up 3.4 per cent to 993,000, Sports Magazines, up 4.2 per cent to 522,000, Music & Movies Magazines, up 4.6 per cent to 239,000 and Motorcycle Magazines, up 8.3 per cent to 215,000.

Roy Morgan Research on magazine readership in Australia

Top 25 Magazines by print readership – June 2024 (Magazines in bold are up on a year ago)

There are three paid magazines with a readership of over a million Australians. These include Better Homes and Gardens, The Australian Women’s Weekly and National Geographic.

Better Homes and Gardens has a print readership of 1,793,000 ahead of The Australian Women’s Weekly at 1.2 million. National Geographic is third spot with a 9.9 per cent year-on-year increase to 1,054,000.

As for free magazines, Australia’s two most widely read magazines are from Coles and Woolworths. Coles has a growing print readership of 5,188,000, up 5.4 per cent on a year ago, followed by Fresh Ideas (from Woolworths) which has a readership of 4,880,000.

Other magazines that have seen their print readership increase over the past year include Qantas Magazine, up 19.4 per cent to 537,000 – the largest increase among the top 25 most widely read magazines – and Vogue Australia, up 3.8 per cent to 466,000.

The research also shows that 4,097,000 Australians, or 18.3 per cent of the population, read at least one of the general interest magazines in the year to June 2024.

Roy Morgan Research on magazine readership in Australia

Beyond just print readership, 15 million Australians aged 14+ (66.6 per cent) read magazines in either print or online either via the web or an app.

A total of ten Australian magazines have cross-platform audiences of over 1 million people and are led by Are Media’s Better Homes and Gardens which has a total cross platform audience of over 2.2 million people, ahead of Woman’s Day with almost 2 million people. The Australian Women’s Weekly and New Idea are also widely read and each of these magazines reaches a cross-platform audience of over 1.5 million.

“The full cross-platform and print readership results for the year to June 2024 show magazines are reaching a large majority of Australians – 15 million 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,” said Michele Levine, CEO of Roy Morgan.