From pig hunting to quilting - why magazines still matter

Look around in any newsagent or supermarket and you will be right in thinking that Australians love magazines. Four copies are sold nationally every second, and we spend over $603 million each year on our magazines, says Magazine Networks, an Australian publishers' industry body. Even though sales of some magazines have declined, we still have plenty to choose from. There are a few of the mass market titles left on the shelves, such as 'Australian Women's Weekly', with a readership of over 1.6 million. But the growth is not in the mass market. It is in specialised titles such as those published by Universal Magazines, whose readerships are in the tens of thousands for niche-interest publications that range from trail bikes to organic gardening. And it may come as a surprise that the print magazines with the biggest readership figures are actually custom magazines produced by supermarket giants Coles and Woolworths. Each title has almost double the readership figures of the 'Australian Women's Weekly' or 'Better Homes and Gardens'.