Roy Morgan: Mag Readership Down, With Weekly Trashies Taking Biggest Dive

Although three quarters of Australians aged 15 and over read magazines in either print or online in 2019, the number is down compared to the previous year, according to Roy Morgan.

Readership of print magazines was almost 13.1 million Australians aged 14 and over (62.8 per cent), down 3.8 per cent from a year ago.

Michele Levine, CEO, Roy Morgan, said readership of magazines is “holding strong”

“Several new magazines launched over the past year have attracted large audiences already including Bunnings Magazine (launched in March 2019) with a readership of almost 1.2 million and New Idea Royals (launched in July 2019) and already read by over 600,000.

“The best performing magazine categories over the last year were Home & Garden Magazines (up 16.2 per cent), Women’s Fashion (up 4.6 per cent) and Fishing Magazines (up 5.5 per cent).

“Improved cross-platform audiences were reported for Women’s Weekly on almost 2.6 million (+2.9 per cent), Better Homes & Gardens (+12.3 per cent), Good Health (+18.1 per cent) and National Geographic (+1.3 per cent).”

Weekly trashies take a dive

Women’s Weekly, Woman’s Day and New Idea have taken the biggest hit, down -11.0 per cent, -26.4 per cent and -20.9 per cent respectively.

Other major drops include Take 5 Bumper Monthly (-14.7 per cent) and Royal Auto Vic (-20.5 per cent).

Better Homes & Gardens most widely read paid magazine

Better Homes & Gardens is Australia’s most widely read paid magazine with print readership up 8.4 per cent to 1,698,000.

Women’s Weekly is the second most widely read with a readership if 1,398,000.

In addition National Geographic has retained an impressive print readership of 1,250,000 while Australian Geographic was up 3.9 per cent to 644,000. The newly launched New Idea Royals has debuted as Australia’s seventh most widely read paid magazine with a sizeable print readership of 603,000.

Super Food Ideas had the largest readership increase of the top magazines, up 34.8 per cent to 589,000.

Coles Magazine & Fresh most widely read free magazine

Australia’s two most widely read free magazines are again Coles Magazine with a readership of 4,573,000 and Fresh with a readership of 4,086,000.

Bunnings Magazine is the third most widely read free magazine and now read by 1,186,000 making the hardware retailer’s magazine, launched in 2019, one of only six read by more than 1 million Australians.

The five most read categories of magazines

● Food & Entertainment (6,606,000 Australians, 31.7 per cent of the population);

● General Interest (4,440,000 Australians, 21.3 per cent of the population);

● Home & Garden (3,294,000 Australians, 15.8 per cent of the population);

● Mass Women’s (3,184,000 Australians, 15.3 per cent of the population);

● Business, Financial & Airline (1,439,000 Australians, 6.9 per cent of the population).

Magazine cross-platform audiences up for Women’s Weekly, BH&G and Good Health

A majority of four of Australia’s top six magazines ranked by cross-platform audience increased their audience in the year to December 2019 led by Women’s Weekly, Better Homes & Gardens (BH&G), Good Health and National Geographic.

The Women’s Weekly increased total cross-platform audience by 2.9 per cent to 2,569,000 although Taste.com.au remains the best read title across print and digital formats with a total cross-platform audience of over 3.1 million (down by 2.6 per cent).

The largest increase in cross-platform audience amongst the top 10 leading magazines was Bauer Media title Good Health which uses the Now to Love online hub and increased its cross-platform audience by 237,000 to 1,550,000 (up 18.1 per cent).

Also having a good year was Better Homes & Gardens up by 12.3 per cent to an audience of 2,023,000 and the National Geographic which increased by 1.3 per cent to 1,580,000.

Bauer Media’s Now to Love online hub allows magazine publishers to reach their audience in new ways with innovative online offerings. Many of Bauer Media’s magazine brands (including Women’s Weekly, Woman’s Day, Good Health, Empire and Take 5 consolidated their online presence in the Now to Love hub which reaches well over 1.3 million people.

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