Roy Morgan Australian Readership report for the 12 months to December 2025 found over 14.5 million Australians aged 14 and over read magazines in print or online via the web or an app.
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 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 cross-platform audiences of over 900,000.
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 per cent 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.
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.
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.
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.
3,895,000 Australians, or 16.9 per cent 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.
Overall, the Business, Financial & Airline magazines category are read by 1,385,000 Australians (6.0 per cent 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.
Michele Levine, CEO, Roy Morgan, says 63 per cent of Australians read magazines in print or online – including eight magazines with cross-platform audiences over 1 million people: “The latest Roy Morgan readership survey shows over 14.5 million Australians (63 per cent of Australians aged 14+) now read magazines whether in print or online and print readership is almost half the population at 10.7 million (46.4 per cent of all Australians).
“The full cross-platform and print readership results for the year to December 2025 show magazines are reaching well over three-fifths of Australians – 14.5 million (63 per cent) 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.”
