Magazines matter — maybe more than ever

06/12/2025

“Reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated,” Mark Twain is alleged to have said when, in 1897, a reporter mistook the late 19th century novelist for his cousin, who indeed had recently met his demise.

Twain’s barb flagging his continuing healthy existence, although misreported (he actually said, “the report of my death was an exaggeration”, but this has since been playfully adapted), offers an apt metaphor just over a century later for the plight of the magazine industry.

As the internet gave rise to digital publishing and social media, the once golden child of the publishing world found itself seemingly on life support. There was a pulse, though, and in fact it’s beating more strongly as this once-spawned sector regains a rosy glow.

Magazines are back in a big way

In Australia, 2025 readership data from Roy Morgan Research posits that around 11.2 million Australians (roughly half of the population aged 14+) still read print magazines. More broadly, about 14.9 million Australians, or roughly 65% of the adult population, read magazines either in print or digital formats.

That’s more than a footnote, it’s a pulse.

Meanwhile, print remains the backbone of the global consumer magazine business: about 80% of consumer-magazine revenue worldwide still comes from print editions, and this share was projected to shrink only marginally by 2026.

What does print do better than pixels?

In a word, engagement. Readers often sit with a magazine for longer, with fewer distractions, to let stories, images and ideas sink in. For advertisers and brands, that translates into better attention: campaigns in print often outperform typical digital ads in delivering impact and recall.

“Readers often sit with a magazine for longer, with fewer distractions, to let stories, images and ideas sink in.”

Print magazines did not just survive their near-death experience; they transformed into a high-value, tactile and even luxurious product. New consumer magazines are emerging with smaller runs, premium paper quality and elevated production values, often with quarterly or bi-annual publishing schedules rather than high-volume monthly cycles. This is helping to recast magazines not as disposable pamphlets, but highly collectable objects akin to a beautifully bound book.

A refuge from digital fatigue

Between endless news feeds, social media scrolls, algorithmic noise, and AI-generated content, there’s clear value to offering an analogue alternative. Many readers, and especially younger generations who have grown up without physical magazines as a staple news source, are discovering the tactile pleasure to be gained from flipping through glossy pages while soaking in long-form stories and lush photography. It’s an experience that can’t be replicated on a screen.

These analogue preferences are not a nostalgic fluke. A report by the US-based News/Media alliance found that 89 per cent of 18-24-year-olods reported having read a magazine in the past six months.

We’re only human — and that’s a good thing

AI will churn out boilerplate copy in seconds, and can even produce a basic magazine by replicating rudimentary layouts. What a custom-published magazine offers is something that AI can’t: a human touch. Thoughtful curation of carefully composed stories, intuitive editing and beautifully designed layouts all require human judgment and commitment. As many in the industry observe, the value of the modern-day magazine lies not in speed and cost, but in considered execution of craft and authenticity.

For brands seeking to communicate key messages to their clients in a meaningful and memorable way, a tailor-made print magazine is more than a mere marketing play — it’s an experience their readers will cherish.

Print isn’t a fallback, it’s a feature

Print magazines will never again dominate the way they did in their mid-20th-century heyday. But it could be argued that’s a good thing. By embracing quality over quantity, execution over speed, and real human craft over algorithmic churn, the print magazine shows a strong and steady heartbeat, and is carving out a privileged place in the modern media landscape.