Woman’s Day will focus on its digital content, lifestyle coverage, and an inaugural live event in 2025, according to Susan Armstrong, General Manager of Entertainment at Are Media.
Armstrong, who oversees Who, Woman’s Day, New Idea, TV WEEK, Take 5, That’s Life, and various puzzle titles, shared the plans with Mediaweek, highlighting that in 2025 the brand will bring back its standalone website, womansday.com.au.
Before selling its stable of magazines to Are Media in 2020, Bauer introduced a one-stop site – nowtolove.com.au – for all its titles in 2017 with each masthead sitting under the umbrella website. Woman’s Day, TV Week and Take 5 remain under that URL.
Now, womansday.com.au will be revived, and there will be increased emphasis on the title as an omnichannel brand.
“Woman’s Day is pretty iconic,” Armstrong said. “It has been a well-established part of this country’s media for nearly 80 years, and that history and trust has built a really loyal audience.
“By focusing on it, we’re not just preserving its legacy; we’re evolving it for a digital-first era where brand identity and audience loyalty are more critical than ever.
Susan Armstrong
“Now To Love has been a valuable part of our ecosystem, but this shift allows us to channel its strengths into a singular powerhouse brand,” said Armstrong.
“The content and audience insights cultivated through Now To Love won’t disappear, they will integrate into Woman’s Day’s strategy, enriching its offerings across all touch points.
“This pivot positions us to deliver more impactful content and innovations that will keep Woman’s Day thriving well into the future.”
Woman’s Day cover
‘Lifestyle content is why our audience buys our print product each week.’
While the famous celebrity and gossip content will still be important to the brand, Armstrong says “lifestyle content really sits at its heart”.
“It’s actually why our audience buys our print product each week and returns to our website day after day,” she said.
“They might come for the celebrity stories, but they stay for so much more: recipes, health, homewares, fashion, beauty, travel.
“In fact, it’s not the gossip but rather our recipes and health stories that continue to rate above 70% in terms of
importance to our audience.”
In mid-next year Woman’s Day will also hold its first live event – Woman’s Day Out – as the brand comes to life for the reader.
“We’re working through the finer details of this ticketed event, but suffice to say, it’s planned for the middle of next year and will feature celebrities, speakers and sponsors talking about everything from mature skin moisturisers to midweek meal ideas. It’s basically going to be Australia’s highest-read weekly magazine brought to life,” Armstrong said.
“It’s a way to elevate the Woman’s Day brand, deepen engagement and attract advertisers looking to connect with this hugely engaged and often overlooked audience.”
‘There are no plans to merge titles’
Despite the focus on Woman’s Day for 2025, Armstrong is quick to reassure that the other weekly titles under her remit are not forgotten – and there are no plans for any of them to merge, despite New Idea, Who and Woman’s Day offering similar content.
“We pack quite the punch when our brands join forces – 37 magazines sold every minute, 4.5 million followers on social, 120,000 weekly EDM subscribers, 2.9 million yearly competitions entries,” she said.
“Overall, that’s six million Australians reached every month through our weekly lifestyle brands. We want to continue to build on the strengths of each brand while making sure we’re delivering even more engaging content across the board.
“But to be clear, there are no plans to merge titles.”
Armstrong sees New idea as different to Woman’s Day in its approach and tone.
“New idea’s a little bit cheekier, a little bit more fun. Woman’s Day is very traditional in the way they serve their content. When we’ve done the research we have two different audiences looking for different things.
“I think with New Idea, the opportunity is that we have a lot of celebrity columnists and we’re starting to move towards that health and wellness space…
“While they (the magazines) might appear on the outside to be quite similar, they do really have different DNAs.”
New Idea
‘The Prime Day deal with Amazon was a huge milestone for us.’
While declining to give circulation figures for the weekly titles, Armstrong pointed out the power of print is enjoying a resurgence with Are Media printing more than 500,000 Amazon Prime Day bespoke catalogues which were wrapped around all weekly titles.
“The Prime Day deal with Amazon was a huge milestone for us,” she said. “It was Amazon Australia’s first-ever print execution, and it was incredibly exciting to be a part of.
“We were able to provide a personalised experience through our custom catalogues, which included QR codes, editor’s picks and a nationwide competition. I believe the decision to go print for Prime Day came from Amazon’s desire to make a physical connection with their audience in a way that digital marketing simply couldn’t.”