Words by Matthew Drummond, Editor AFR Magazine

Beauty and brains, glamour and gravitas, style and substance – there is no other media title in Australia like AFR Magazine, a magazine that spends as much time thinking about how we look as what we say.

When change is the only constant, sometimes the best way to respond is to be constant, to keep doing what you do, but just make it better. Consistency of vision, and quality of execution, is something that’s integral to the success of AFR Magazine. What we do is fundamentally unchanged – the creation of a beautiful magazine that inspires the readership of the Financial Review. 

But in thinking about this, it occurred to me that the past 12 months have marked some big changes and achievements at the Financial Review – the entire masthead. It has indeed been a pivotal year: 

We started the year by welcoming a new generation of trainees, marking an injection of talent as we craft the next generation of Fin Review writers, and in turn, readers. 

We have transformed the technology that our masthead is built on – on both the back end that we use to create our stories, and the front end that our readers see. The digital experience is more visual and features a much higher level of design. 

Our retail digital and corporate subscriber numbers have grown over the last financial year. These paying subscribers are the most valuable readers in Australia.

Off that growth, we’ve kicked up the level of investment in our business. We’re bringing sub-editing back in-house, to lift the quality of every article we produce across the Financial Review.  

We’re putting on new journalists to increase coverage of areas that our subscribers – the most valuable readers in Australia – are interested in.   

And AFR Magazine was named Newspaper Inserted Magazine of the year at the Australian Magazine Awards again, for the seventh year in a row. As at the end of July, the Financial Review readership in print had recorded 10 per cent growth year-on-year, according to EMMA. 

Most significant of all, and one of our biggest strengths is our suite of inserted magazines: from AFR Magazine, BOSS, LUXURY, Sophisticated Traveller and Life & Leisure in the Financial Review to Good Weekend, Sunday Life, Executive Style, Good Food and Traveller in The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age, as well as our premium Domain magazines. 

These are titles which are authorities in their respective areas – be it lifestyle, long-form journalism, fashion, travel or food. They are all different, and they each play a different role in our publishing ecosystem. What they have in common is the affluence they reach and influence they have over the hearts, minds and wallets of millions of Australians each month. 

Next year marks 25 years of AFR Magazine, and 2020 is going to be our best year yet. 

We invite you to be a part of it.