Over 3-in-4 Australians are consuming magazines across print and online

The good news for magazine publishers is that a total of 12,577,000 Australians aged 14+ (62.9 per cent) read print magazines – up 2,000 (virtually unchanged from a year ago) according to the results released today from the Roy Morgan Australian Magazine Readership report for the 12 months to September 2017.

The audience reach of magazines is extended to 15,005,000 Australians 14+ (77.8 per cent) when you include magazine reading online (either via the web or an app).

The withdrawal of major publishers from audited circulation results for magazines last year means Roy Morgan's readership results are the only truly independent measure of magazine performance now available.

Top 15 Magazines: All Categories – Print Readership

Six of Australia’s top 15 magazines increased their print readership over the past 12 months led by the two most widely read magazines – Coles Magazine and Fresh.

Full Magazine Readership Results available to view here.

The five most read categories of magazines

Food and entertainment continues to be Australians most loved magazine category

Food and entertainment continues to experience its long-term growth and maintains its position as Australia’s most loved magazine category read by 6,138,000 Australians, or 30.7% of the population (up 6.3 per cent).

This category is dominated by free supermarket titles both of which saw remarkable year-on-year growth - Coles Magazine with readership of 3,975,000 (up 8.3 per cent) and Woolworth’s Fresh now read by 3,828,000 (up 17.0 per cent). Recipes+ was another standout performer up 6.9 per cent to 450,000 readers.

General interest magazines

4,421,000 Australians, or 22.1% of the population, read at least one general interest magazine (down 1.3 per cent) with the leading titles being National Geographic with readership of 1,048,000 (down 3.6 per cent) and local competitor Australian Geographic with readership of 570,000 (up 0.2 per cent).

In addition, leading motoring club titles Open Road (NSW) with readership of 1,052,000 (down 8.1 per cent), Royal Auto (Vic) read by 628,000 (up 1.0 per cent) and Road Ahead (Qld) read by 604,000 (up 12.5 per cent) also continue to service large audiences within their respective states.

Mass Women’s magazines

The readership of Mass Women’s magazines has been under long-term pressure but a significant 3,363,000 Australians, equal to 16.8% of the population, continue to read Mass Women’s titles despite the category being down 5.6 per cent from a year ago.

Women’s Weekly remains the clear category leader with readership of 1,479,000 (down 10.3 per cent) ahead of Woman’s Day on 1,282,000 (down 3.8 per cent) and New Idea on 1,094,000 (down 4.0 percent). There are also significant readerships for That’s Life on 670,000 (down 2.5 per cent) and Take 5 on 498,000 (down 6.9 per cent).

Home and Garden magazines

The fourth most popular category of magazines remains Home and Garden titles, despite a drop of 6.9 per cent in the last 12 months. 2,939,000 Australians now read at least one magazine in this category equal to 14.7% of the population.

Better Homes and Gardens maintains the dominant position in the category with a readership of 1,728,000 (down 6.8 per cent) ahead of House and Garden on 521,000 (down 14.9 per cent). Bucking the category trend were Country Style – up 2.6 per cent to 281,000 and Vogue Living – up 6.3 per cent to 119,000.

Business, Financial & Airline magazines

Qantas Magazine remains the lead title in the category with readership of 406,000 (down 7.7 per cent) while Time magazine had the category’s largest year-on-year increase with readership up 2.4 per cent to 340,000 and New Scientist held steady on 376,000 (up 0.3 per cent).

Readership in this category declined over the past year, down 3.2 per cent to 1,687,000 Australians.

Women’s Fashion Magazines is the fastest growing category

Women’s Fashion magazines have led the way in the 12 months to September 2017 readership results with the largest year-on-year growth – up an impressive 7.4 per cent to a readership of 1,234,000 to be the seventh most read category overall equal to 6.2 per cent of the population.

Leading the charge upward in readership is category leader Frankie up 20.6 per cent to a readership of 398,000 and Elle magazine, now read by 165,000 (up 22.2 per cent). Vogue Australia was another in the category to increase its readership to 342,000 (up 1.5 per cent).

Other magazine titles to perform strongly included several automotive focused magazines including Street Machine – up 10.2 per cent to a readership of 249,000, Wheels, up 5.8 per cent to a readership of 273,000 and Fast Fours & Rotaries, up a large 37.3 per cent to a readership of 70,000.

Magazine Cross-Platform Audience

Of Australia’s leading 10 magazines ranked by cross-platform audience nine of the ten retain a significantly larger readership via their print editions than their digital offerings – a clear contrast to their print newspaper cousins.

Earlier this year many of Bauer’s magazine brands (including Women’s Weekly, Woman’s Day, Take 5 and others) consolidated their online presence under category banners such as Now to Love which has a digital readership of 905,000. The results in the cross platform table below reflect this new positioning and therefore year on year comparisons are not made.

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, except for weekly titles which are in an average 7 days (denoted by *). #For additional detail on the platforms covered for each magazine visit the website.

Michele Levine, CEO, Roy Morgan Research, says magazines have been slower to move to a digital future than their print newspaper counterparts but having a strong digital presence is key to magazines retaining relevance in an increasingly online world:

“A majority of over 15 million Australians aged 14+ (77.8 per cent) read magazines whether in print or online (either via the web or an app) in the year to September 2017 – virtually unchanged from a year ago.

“Analysing Australia’s most widely read magazines shows six of Australia’s top 15 magazines increased their print readership over the past 12 months led by the two most widely read magazines – Coles Magazine and Fresh.

“Although Australia is moving definitively towards an ‘experience economy’ that de-emphasises traditional notions of ‘ownership’ – a theme explored in depth in the recent Roy Morgan State of the Nation Media, different types of magazines are impacted by consumer habits and competitive pressures in a variety of ways.

“Because of these diverse impulses, although the broader print industry is under intense pressure in an increasingly digital world, specialist magazines including fashion titles like Frankie, Elle and Vogue Australia, and automotive magazines including Wheels, Street Machine and Fast Fours & Rotaries have all recorded strong increases in their print readership over the past 12 months.

“The strong performance of magazines that cater to audiences interested in specific areas provides an example for other magazines dealing with stagnating readership and struggling to implement a successful cross-platform strategy to grow their digital audiences. The biggest advantage established magazines have over digital upstarts is name-recognition and the brand trust which the magazine has built up over years.

“To build a successful online audience magazines need to leverage this established trust and target their customers through sophisticated psychographic audience segmentation tools like Roy Morgan Helix Personas that allow publishers to gain a much greater depth of understanding of their customers than in the past.”

To learn more about Roy Morgan’s Readership research, call (+61) (3) 9224 5309 or email askroymorgan@roymorgan.com.