Empty shelves on a Monday: Magazine retreat continues
No magazines for you (James Manning/Mumbrella)
With still no word about a buyer for Australia’s biggest print and digital publisher, Are Media has forged ahead with a cost-cutting measure that changes print magazines on sale dates around the country.
As one of the shrinking number of buyers visiting my local newsagent’s magazine racks on Monday I was greeted with empty shelving at the front door and a note about the non-arrival of the weekly magazine drop.
“Apologies for not having your magazines today,” read the message.
It then briefly explained why: “Our magazines will now arrive once a week on Tuesdays between 8am and 5.30pm.”
For the majority of Australians, the intricacies of magazine delivery days will have zero impact. But then again, The Australian Women’s Weekly is reporting print readership of over a million, so there is still a sizable audience waiting for their monthly drop of The Weekly.
In the heady days of magazine publishing, newsagents got at least three drops of fresh titles every week. That later changed to two and more recently just one day a week, on a Monday in most places.
In 2025, Are Media started trialling staggered delivery days. One Melbourne newsagent told me they have been on Tuesdays for some time. Sales were understandably impacted negatively initially, but started to climb back toward regular numbers once customers became accustomed to the change.
The danger is that readers who were teetering on the edge of kicking their print habit might be pushed over the edge and use the change as a reason not to return as they save a few dollars a week. As the readership data indicates below, customers buying mass market weeklies continue to shrink.
Weekly magazine print readership 2025
- New Idea 488,000 (-1.3%)
- Take 5 437,000 (+1.7%)
- That’s Life 408,000 (-11.6%)
- TV Week 297,000 (-16.4%)
- Who 116,000 (-16.4%)
- Woman’s Day 606,000 (-12.7%)
Source: Roy Morgan. 12 months to December 2025. Percentage change is year-on-year. Print readership estimates do not include people who read the publications in their digital form online, via web, mobile or app.
Retailers need to be less dependent on print
Are Media weekly magazines now available on different days around Australia
The CEO of industry marketing group newsXpress, Mark Fletcher, has been working with his members to strengthen the profitability of their retail outlets. He sees a place for magazines in the product mix, but not as dominant as it once was. Fletcher noted last month:
“As we move deeper into 2026, the data from my 2024/2025 benchmark study confirms a brutal reality. Retailers clinging to the “agency” model—relying on lotteries, newspapers, and magazines—are watching their business value evaporate in real-time.”
But Fletcher has supported the campaign and the way Are Media has rolled out the changing on sale days.
“Newsagents need to consider this in the context of their businesses and consider other changes they could make for a more sustainable retail business,” he said last August.
Although there was surprise this week at some retailers when the on sale day moved, an Are Media spokesperson told Mumbrella:
“There was an awareness campaign done around this with newsagents, and via industry associations (ALNA, NANA, and NLNA) in the lead up to this transition. Collateral was also provided to newsagents in advance of the delivery changes so they could promote the new delivery day to their customers.”
The company also confirmed the staggered publishing days: “The weekly daytime delivery on-sale is either Monday, Tuesday, or Wednesday.”
That may create a marketing challenge in terms of informing the audience when the issue will be available. The Are Media website is yet to catch up, continuing to promote Monday as the day magazines hit shelves.
The spokesperson denied long term negative sales impact.
“After some initial impact from customers getting used to the new on-sale pattern, trial stores weekly sales performance was in line with non-trial store performance. As this continued to roll out in other areas the results were the same, showing no overall impact.”
