The Roy Morgan Readership survey reports the majority of General Interest magazines increased readership, led by National Geographic, in the year to September 2018.
4,706,000 Australians, or 23.1% of the population, read at least one of the general interest magazine titles. Eight of the 13 magazines in the category increased their readership over the last year with category-leading title National Geographic increasing its readership by an impressive 21.7% to 1,275,000 on the back of a very successful “Planet or Plastic” edition in June covered extensively here.
Other strongly performing magazines in the category included motoring magazines Horizons read by 249,000 (up 67.1%), Royal Auto (Vic) read by 709,000 (up 12.9%) and Road Ahead (Qld) up 8.9% to 658,000 readers.
Mass Women’s magazines readership boosted by new Take 5 monthly magazine
Readership of Mass Women’s magazines managed an increase of 1% from a year ago. These titles are now read by 3,396,000 Australians, equal to 16.7% of the population.
The category was boosted by the new Take 5 monthly magazine, which captured a readership of 736,000 with its first inclusion on the survey, while Women’s Weekly remained the category leader, increasing readership by 4.1% to 1,539,000 ahead of Woman’s Day with readership of 1,246,000.
Other magazines in the category maintained significant readerships including New Idea on 1,038,000, That’s Life! on 621,000 and Take 5 (weekly) on 500,000.
Home Design, Gardening Australia, Real Living and House & Garden all up strongly
Now 2,882,000 Australians read at least one magazine in the Home & Garden category with seven of the 11 magazines in the category increasing their readership over the last year.
Among these seven magazines House & Garden was the leading magazine and is now read by 540,000 Australians (up 3.6%) with rival Gardening Australia close behind on 534,000 and up a stunning 34.2% on a year ago.
Other Home & Garden titles that grew their readership included Home Design, which was up a stunning 53.9% to 117,000, Real Living up 11.5% to 97,000, Home Beautiful up 1.9% to 322,000, Handyman up 2.1% to 194,000 and Belle up 1% to 102,000.
By far the leading magazine in the category remained Better Homes and Gardens, maintaining its leader with a readership of 1,623,000 (down 6.1%).
Qantas magazine most widely read while Jetstar & Virgin Australia Voyeur both up
The Business, Financial and Airline magazines readership trend was little changed over the last year, down marginally by 1% to 1,602,000 (7.9% of the population).
Qantas Magazine is again the best-read title in the category with a readership of 404,000. Stablemate Jetstar was up an impressive 18.5% to 243,000. Virgin Australia Voyeur readership increased by 8.1% to 226,000.
Finance magazine titles to perform strongly included Money Magazine up 18.9% to 151,000 and WA Business News up 45.8% to 35,000.
Health & Family, Motoring and Fishing magazines increase their audiences
Health & Family, Motoring, Fishing and Men’s magazines are four additional magazine categories outside the biggest five that grew their audience in the 12 months to September 2018.
Health & Family magazines experienced category growth of 5.8% over the past year to be just outside the top five categories with overall readership of 1,479,000, or 7.3% of the population. Overall eight of the 10 magazines in the category grew their readership over the past year.
The fastest-growing Health & Family title was Nature & Health, which increased its readership by an exceptional 111.9% to 89,000. Other strong performers included Healthy Food Guide, which is now read by 224,000 (up 73.6%), Wellbeing with a readership of 132,000 (up 50%) and Fitness First, which grew its readership by 24.6% to 76,000.
Motoring magazines increased their readership by 4.8% to a readership of 1,041,000. All but one of the eight magazines measured in the category increased their readership over the last year.
The strongest performer in the category was Unique Cars, which increased its readership by an impressive 35.1% to 200,000 while Overlander 4WD was up 18.5% to a readership of 96,000. Other solid performances in the category were by Motor, which increased its readership by 8% to 149,000, Australian 4WD Action, which was up 7.6% to 255,000, Just Cars, which increased readership by 7.1% to 212,000 and Street Machine with readership up by 5.6% to 263,000.
Fishing magazines increased their readership as a category by 1.4% to 288,000 led by Fishing World, up 22% to a readership of 172,000. Other magazines to perform strongly included Inside Sport up by 28.2% to a readership of 132,000, Harper’s Bazaar up by 36.9% to a readership of 152,000, OK! magazine up by 14.4% to a readership of 167,000, Golf Australia up by 16.2% to a readership of 79,000 and Playstation magazine up by 18.1% to 150,000.