Six magazine categories experience readership rise on 2021 figures: Roy Morgan
52.1% of Australians aged 14+ (11 million) read print magazines today, down 0.9% points on a year ago, according to the results released today from the Roy Morgan Australian Readership report for the 12 months to June 2022.
This market broadens to 14.7 million Australians aged 14+ (69.5%) who read magazines in print or online either via the web or an app, a small drop of 3.1 per cent from a year ago. These are the latest findings from the Roy Morgan Single Source survey of 65,321 Australians aged 14+ in the 12 months to June 2022.
Print readership increased for six magazine categories compared to a year ago including for Health & Family, Food & Entertainment, Women’s Lifestyle and Motoring
There were increases in print readership for six of the 17 magazine categories over the last year despite the easing of restrictions allowing Australians to spend their money more widely so far during 2022.
The print readership of Health & Family magazines, the fifth most widely read magazine category, increased by 23.6 per cent to 1,180,000 and the most widely read Food & Entertainment category, was up marginally to a readership of over 7,134,000.
General interest magazines had a print readership of 4,022,000 to be the second most widely read category of magazines ahead of Home & Garden, read by 3,667,000 and Mass Women’s read by 2,642,000.
Nearly half of the top 10 most widely read magazines increased their print readership over the last year and eight out of the top 25.
Better Homes & Gardens is Australia’s most widely read paid magazine with print readership of 1,574,000 ahead of the Australian Women’s Weekly with a print readership of 1,202,000. Better Homes & Gardens and Australian Women’s Weekly are the only two paid magazines with a readership of over 1 million.
In addition, National Geographic has an impressive print readership of 818,000 to be Australia’s third most widely read paid magazine just ahead of Taste.com.au Magazine, up 23.3 per cent to 810,000 ahead of Woman’s Day with a print readership of 727,000.
Australia’s two most widely read free magazines are Coles magazine with a print readership of 4,829,000 just ahead of Fresh Ideas (from Woolworths) with a readership of 4,725,000, up 2.8 per cent.
Bunnings magazine is the third most widely read free magazine with a print readership of 1,516,000.
Other magazines to increase their print readership over the past year included Vogue Australia, up 0.3 per cent to 352,000 and big gains for both Street Machine, up 39.5 per cent to 307,000 and Men’s Health, up 21.6 per cent to 293,000. Qantas Magazine, which was now returned to ‘in-flight’ distribution with the resumption of domestic air travel recorded a print readership of 334,000 during this period.
The five most read categories of magazines by print readership
- Food & Entertainment (7,134,000 Australians, 33.7% of the population);
- General Interest (4,022,000 Australians, 19.0% of the population);
- Home & Garden (3,667,000 Australians, 17.3% of the population);
- Mass Women’s (2,642,000 Australians, 12.5% of the population);
- Health & Family (1,180,000 Australians, 5.6% of the population).
Food & Entertainment magazines number one with total print readership of over 7.1 million
Food & Entertainment is again Australia’s best performing magazine category and is now read by 7,134,000 Australians, or 33.7% of the population – over 3 million ahead of any other category. A majority of six out of the 11 titles in this category increased their print readership on a year ago.
Print readership of General Interest magazines holds strong above 4 million
4,022,000 Australians, or 19% of the population, read at least one of the general interest magazines. Of the 15 magazines in the category, 8 increased their print readership from a year ago while only five decreased.
National Geographic was the most widely read paid magazine in the category with a print readership of 818,000.
Home & Garden magazines are in a clear third place read by over 3.6 million Australians
Home & Garden magazines are now read by 3,667,000 Australians accounting for over 1 in 6 Australians.
Australia’s most widely read paid magazine is again Better Homes & Gardens (BH&G) with a print readership of 1,574,000 – over 300,000 more than any other paid magazine.
Mass Women’s magazines are read by over 2.6 million Australians in 2022
Mass Women’s magazines are now read by 2,642,000 Australians equal to 12.5 per cent of the population and include five magazines read by more than 500,000 people – more than any other category.
A majority of Health & Family magazines increase their print readership from a year ago
Overall the Health & Family magazines print readership increased by a substantial 23.6 per cent to 1,180,000 (5.6% of the population).
Four of the five continuing magazines in the category experienced an increase in print readership over the last year led by Wellbeing, up 56.9 per cent to a readership of 160,000.
Roy Morgan CEO Michele Levine said: “The latest Roy Morgan readership survey shows 14.7 million Australians now read magazines whether in print or online while print readership itself was little changed on a year ago at 11 million.
“There were strong performances across several magazine categories with more than a third increasing their print readership compared to a year ago. Those to increase their print readership included Health & Family magazines, up by 23.6 per cent to 1,180,000, Motoring magazines up 10.6 per cent to 907,000 and the most widely read category of all, Food & Entertainment up marginally to a readership of 7,134,000. In addition to the leading categories there were also increases for categories including Women’s Lifestyle, Motorcycle and Craft magazines.
“The impacts of COVID-19 during 2022 are still being felt and that includes in the way behaviour changes and varies depending upon whether we are experiencing a wave of cases that forces many Australians to work from home rather than head into the office.”
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