Australian Magazine Readership: Sep 2021 Roy Morgan Results
Source: Roy Morgan
Editor’s note: This is an archived readership update based on Roy Morgan data for the 12 months to September 2021. For the most recent Australian magazine readership analysis, see our latest readership update.
Roy Morgan’s Australian magazine readership results for the 12 months to September 2021 captured a distinctive post-lockdown moment for the magazine market. Print readership increased year on year, while the combined print and digital audience softened, highlighting the different dynamics shaping print recovery and cross-platform consumption at the time.
Why this mattered for publishers
The September 2021 results showed that print magazines retained meaningful audience strength during a period of disrupted media behaviour. For publishers, the key signal was not simply that print readership had lifted, but that category performance varied significantly by reader need, with food, home, general interest and mass women’s titles benefiting from lifestyle shifts during and after lockdown periods.
Roy Morgan has released its latest Australian magazine readership results for 12 months to September 2021. In what was a bumper season for print magazines reporting gains of +2.2% year on year, overall the combined print and digital audience fell -3.3% year on year.
“Over 11.2 million Australians aged 14+ (53%) now read print magazines, an increase of 2.2% from a year ago, according to the results released today from the Roy Morgan Australian Readership report for the 12 months to September 2021.
This market broadens to 15.2 million Australians aged 14+ (71.8%) read magazines in print or online either via the web or an app, down 3.3 per cent from a year ago. These are the latest findings from the Roy Morgan Single Source survey of 64,972 Australians aged 14+ in the 12 months to September 2021.
Print readership increased in top four magazine categories: Food and Entertainment, General Interest, Home & Garden and Mass Women’s Magazines
The overall magazine industry readership figures are up compared to a year ago with the rebound out of the 2020 lockdowns earlier last year providing a boost to key magazine categories. Of the 15 categories measured over the last two years two-thirds (10 magazine categories) are up and only 5 are down.
The print readership of all four of the most widely read magazine categories increased significantly from a year ago. Readership of the Food & Entertainment category increased 12.7 per cent to over 7.2 million, General Interest was up 9.1 per cent to over 4.1 million, Home & Garden increased substantially by 12.2 per cent to almost 3.8 million and Mass Women’s was up 4.1 per cent to around 3 million.
There were also impressive increases in readership for the magazine categories covering Motoring, TV, Sports, Music & Movies, Fishing and Motorcyles.
The top 25 magazines increased their print readership over the past year with Better Homes & Gardens and Women’s Weekly again the most widely read paid magazines
All 25 of Australia’s most widely read magazines experienced a growth in their print readership over the past year as Australians emerged from the nationwide lockdown in early 2020, and millions of Victorians emerged from a much longer second lockdown running through the winter months of 2020.
Better Homes & Gardens is Australia’s most widely read paid magazine with print readership up 8.2 per cent to 1,661,000 ahead of the Australian Women’s Weekly with a print readership of 1,393,000, an increase of 11.1 per cent on a year ago.
In addition, National Geographic has retained an impressive print readership of 965,000, up 8.9 per cent on a year ago to be Australia’s third most widely read paid magazine ahead of Woman’s Day with a readership of 771,000, an increase of 6.6 per cent.
Coles Magazine & Fresh most widely read while Bunnings Magazine read by over 1.5m
Australia's two most widely read free magazines are Coles Magazine with a readership of 5,132,000, an increase of 13.8 per cent from a year ago and Fresh Ideas with a readership of 4,661,000, up 16.3 per cent.
Bunnings Magazine is the third most widely read free magazine and its increase in readership over the last year has been closely tied to the boom in home improvement and renovations due to the COVID-19 pandemic with readership increasing by a massive 10.4 per cent to 1,501,000.
There were six magazines in the top 15 to have increases in readership of over 20 per cent compared to a year ago led by two motoring magazines. The NRMA’s magazine Open Road (NSW) increased its readership by 24.9 per cent to well over 1 million while the RACQ’s Road Ahead (Qld) was up 30.5 per cent to 650,000.
However, the largest increase was for House & Garden which grew its readership by a massive 50.1 per cent to 644,000 to be the sixth most widely read paid magazine.
Other leading magazines to perform strongly include Taste.com.au Magazine (+22.5 per cent to 708,000), Take 5 Bumper Monthly (+23.9 per cent to 601,000) and That’s Life Mega Monthly (+31.8 per cent to 559,000).”
Full magazine readership results available to view here.
Read the latest magazine readership analysis
For a more current view of Australian magazine audiences, including the latest Roy Morgan cross-platform and print readership results, read our latest Australian magazine readership update.
