Category: Digital & Publishing

State of the Nation with Lauren Sams, Editor, Fin Magazine

Nine Publishing

Independence  |  stories that matter  |  commercial with integrity

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Lauren Sams - Editor, Fin Magazine

Here at Fin, we create trends, we have influence, and we lead the pack. We think of Fin like a fabulous dinner party, where every guest brings something bold, cool and different to the table. We can’t wait to unpack how your brands can connect with our affluent and influential audiences through the luxury bible pages of Fin magazine this year.

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State of the Nation with Melissa Stevens, Editor, Good Weekend

Nine Publishing

Independence  |  stories that matter  |  commercial with integrity

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Melissa Stevens - Editor, Good Weekend

Good Weekend is long-form journalism at its best, delivering content with detail and depth to an audience who turn to us for the definitive pieces about the people or issues which are part of the national conversation. In 2026, Good Weekend has debuted a new format with all the crowd favourites returning, plus a brand-new column, Life Lessons, giving sharp and smart solutions to some of the nation’s daily dilemmas.

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State of the Nation with Amanda Upton, Client Director, Luxury & Travel

Nine Publishing

Independence  |  stories that matter  |  commercial with integrity

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Amanda Upton - Client Director, Luxury & Travel

The future of travel is incredibly dynamic. While print remains core, the shift towards data-driven insights will continue to play a crucial role.

We’ve harnessed this to personalise campaigns and shape our content, as seen with the launch of the highly successful AFR Magazine's ‘Highflyer’ franchise – and there is more launching this year.

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Nine Publishing – Responsible Journalism

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In a world overwhelmed by misinformation, audiences are searching for trusted, independent journalism. At Nine, we don’t just chase clicks. We champion truth, depth, and integrity, creating a premium environment to connect with engaged, high-value audiences in moments that matter.

For advertisers, responsible journalism isn’t just an ethical choice, it’s a business advantage. Our premium news platforms provide a trusted context that enhances effectiveness, with audiences more receptive to messaging when it’s delivered within credible content.

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A NOTE FROM //

Tory Maguire

Managing Director, Publishing - Nine

Our unwavering commitment to truth, accuracy and integrity ensures we deliver balanced, trustworthy journalism that holds the powerful to account. We prioritise stories that matter over those that simply drive traffic, delivering commercial outcomes with integrity. Journalism is both our responsibility and our privilege - one that earns the trust of our audiences every day.

AT THE HEART OF EVERYTHING WE DO //

Nine’s commitment to responsible journalism is built on 3 core pillars that set us apart

Independence

We are committed to fearless independent journalism that upholds accuracy, fairness and balance across print and digital.

Stories that matter

Australians turn to us for trusted news, sharp analysis and expert opinion – cutting through the noise in moments that truly matter.

Commercial with integrity

Our integrity ensures a trusted environment for both audiences and advertisers. We prioritise credibility over commercial influence, fostering meaningful brand connections that resonate with engaged readers.

A legacy of trust

Proven impact

An audience that matters

Marketing with integrity

Ads within news content are 60% more trusted and deliver 2x the engagement of social platforms

Source: AdTrust 2019, News MediaWorks and NewsWorks Trust Report 2023, Future of News Report, Stagwell 2024.

EFFECTIVENESS //

Our multi-platform approach amplifies effectiveness

Print

High impact placements in The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age and The Australian Financial Review provide a premium attention-driven experience with deep audience trust.

Digital

Our online platforms drive scale and precision, from immersive native storytelling to high-impact digital takeovers, ensuring maximum visibility and engagement.

CASE STUDIES //

Responsible journalism in action

At Nine, responsible journalism creates the perfect foundation for responsible advertising – a space where brands can engage, persuade, and drive action with confidence.

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FINANCIAL FITNESS

Capturing the Ultra-Luxury Traveller

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Inside Nine’s Travel Trends Index: Empowering brands with data-driven insights

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Inside Nine's Travel Trends Index: Empowering brands with data-driven insights

In the ever-evolving landscape of travel, understanding the preferences and behaviours of Australian travellers is crucial for delivering content that resonates far and wide. To get to the heart of these insights, Nine recently launched the Aussie Travel Trends Index – a survey meticulously crafted to explore the travel habits and aspirations of Australians.

9Travel Editor, Kristine Tarbert, gives us an in-depth look at how this survey was conducted, the key findings, plus what it means for content creators and marketers alike.  

The method behind the insights

The Aussie Travel Trends Index stems from a robust survey conducted across Nine's diverse audience - spanning TV, digital, print, and radio platforms. Highlighting the breadth of respondents and with a focus on understanding the heartbeat of Australian travel, Kristine explains:  

“With over 1,100 respondents, the survey was carefully weighted to ensure a nationally representative sample of Australians aged 18 and over. We asked a range of questions - everything from spending habits, to favourite travel spots and beaches as well as honeymoon and camping destinations.

The goal was twofold: firstly, to ensure our content aligns with the top interests of our readers, and secondly, to equip our commercial team with data-driven insights to facilitate more informed conversations with our partners. By understanding what excites our audience, we can better serve both their needs and the interests of our advertisers.”

Shaping content with purpose: How insights drive cross-platform synergy

The ability to craft content that resonates on a broad scale, while still being finely tuned to specific audience segments, is a testament to Nine’s cross-platform capabilities. This is especially crucial in today’s media landscape, where delivering tailored content that truly resonates with audiences is key to maintaining high engagement.

“The survey insights are instrumental in shaping the content across Nine's platforms, particularly for 9Travel and the Today Show. By identifying the destinations and types of holidays our audiences are interested in, we can tailor our content to provide them with the inspiration and information they most need and want. 

Whether a detailed guide to a trending destination or tips for planning a perfect camping trip, our content is perfectly aligned with our audience's travel plans.” 

Diverse audiences, unique preferences

The results showcased a clear appetite for travel in Australia, with Eastern Seaboard locations amongst the most popular, and Tasmania a surprise winner across various categories. Delving into the differences between the 9Travel and Today Show audiences, Kristine revealed some fascinating distinctions.

“While there are similarities, each audience has its own unique appetite for travel. 9Travel visitors, for example, showed a greater interest in camping and are willing to spend a bit more on their adventures. Meanwhile, Today Show viewers show a stronger preference for classic destinations like the Gold Coast, especially those under 45. 

Internationally, the USA, Hawaii, and Fiji were popular choices for Today Show viewers, while Europe remained the top choice overall for Nine’s audience.” 

The most significant takeaway

In a challenging economic climate, one thing remains clear: Australians passion for travel is unwavering.

“Despite the current cost of living pressures, travel remains front of mind, and in fact a priority for many. The growth we’ve seen in 9Travel’s audience since we launched in February, having hit over 1 million users in June, is a testament to this. Our ability to stay on top of trends, and truly understand what our readers are interested in is second to none.” 

Leveraging the Travel Trends Index for campaign success

For brands looking to connect more deeply with their target audience, the insights from the Travel Trends Index are a goldmine. Whilst informing Nine’s content strategy across platforms like 9Travel and the Today Show, we can also equip brands with the knowledge needed to craft effective campaigns that truly align with the current travel landscape. Whether it’s tapping into growing interest in domestic travel or aligning with the top international destinations, these insights empower brands to make more informed decisions.

 

Source: Ipsos iris Online Audience Measurement Service July 2024, Age 14+, PC/laptop/smartphone/tablet, Text only, Brand Group, Travel (News Only) Tier 2 Category, Audience (000s), Avg Mins PP, Page Views (000s).

Looking to connect with Nine's travel enthusiasts? We'd love to hear from you.

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Upcoming Publishing Features

Make an impact with Australia's best lifestyle content

Our readers are primed for indulgence – new opportunities available across Nine’s leading publishing assets

Enrich your marketing campaign with a publishing partnership with Nine.

Our readers are primed for indulgence and ready to spend. Whether it’s styling their seasonal wardrobe, planning a much-needed getaway, making home improvements, finding inspiration in arts and design or immersing themselves in the gourmet food world, there is plenty of opportunity to wrap your brand around our upcoming special issues. 

Across Good Weekend, AFR Magazine, Sunday Life, Traveller, Life & Leisure, Good Food and Fin Magazine, there is an abundance of opportunity to engage our readers with your brand message.

LIFESTYLE & DESIGN

AFR Magazine //

Philanthropy & Women's Watch

On Sale: Friday 24th April

This issue includes the highly anticipated Philanthropy 50 which reveals Australia's 50 biggest private givers. Now in its ninth year, this widely read list is the definitive account of who among Australia's wealthiest people gives away the most. It also sets the tone for the issue which explores the powerhouse that philanthropy has become in Australia.

Also in the issue is our annual women’s watch special. Written and edited by watch editor Bani McSpedden.

Booking Deadline: Wednesday 11th March

Material Deadline: Wednesday 25th March

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Good Weekend //

Autumn Style Edit (Gloss)

On Sale: Saturday 28th March

Our Autumn Style Edit is a premium gloss-stock issue that explores style the way intelligent, cultured, and worldly women and men view it - beyond just fashion. It’s about how you live as much as how you look, valuing quality over trends and substance as much as style.

As we transition into cooler weather and embrace the layered elegance of autumn, this special edition celebrates fashion, design, and the essence of a season that’s both stylish and sophisticated.

Booking Deadline: Friday 6th March

Material Deadline: Tuesday 17th March

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TRAVEL

Traveller //

Europe

On Sale: Saturday 14th March

Australians simply can’t get enough of Europe, and nor, for that matter, can readers of Traveller, with each and every edition on the Continent eagerly received by readers. With its population of nearly 750 million spanning more than 40 diverse and culturally-rich countries, the opportunities to experience Europe are endless with our expert writers, some of whom based on the Continent, ready as ever to inspire with the latest and best experiences and destinations.

Booking Deadline: Monday 9th March

Material Deadline: Wednesday 11th March

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DIGITAL

Sunday Life & Good Weekend //

Collections

Collections invites our users to engage in an immersive and enhanced relaxing magazine experience, digitally. Collections at Nine Publishing is a hand-selected curation of content pieces into a series with the ability to integrate client brands into a contextually relevant environment. Brands have the opportunity to own this new lean-in digital 'Collection' experience and align to the premium brands of Publishing at Nine​.

Contact your Nine representative for more information. 

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In Conversation With Kerri Elstub

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Kerri Elstub is one of the rarest types of employees that can be found in 21st Century Australia: the loyal kind.

Now in her 23rd year at Nine, Elstub cut her teeth for a few years in talkback radio before switching employers for the first and only time in her life.

“I’m a Nine person through and through,” she tells B&T proudly. “I spent about 18 years in television and absolutely loved it. Everything from the TODAY show, Weekend Today, to the Kerri-Anne Show and then A Current Affair.”

She made the jump to digital six years ago and is currently the Director of nine.com.au, home to Nine’s suite of websites including 9honey.com.au, 9news.com.au, WWOS.com.au and Nine’s TV show sites.

// HOW DID YOU FIND THE SWITCH FROM TELEVISION TO DIGITAL?

I think both are fast-paced, the television world and the digital world.

A Current Affair is truly the best training ground in the world for any journalist. My six years there were some of the best of my life. I think it puts you in really good stead because A Current Affair knows its audience and it knows Australia. I think I was able to bring a lot of that across to digital and put on a different lens – a consumer lens – which I hadn't seen a lot of in digital before.

That is especially so now with interest rate rises and cost of living pressures – issues that are just as valid today as when I started back on A Current Affair 12 years ago.

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// SIX YEARS INTO NINE.COM.AU, HOW ARE YOU ENJOYING IT?

It’s a privilege to run this part of the business. Digital is such a massive part of what Nine does as a company. It is ever-changing, ever-expanding.

We are sitting in verticals from news to sport, lifestyle to entertainment, property, and now the e-commerce and affiliate marketing sites we run. We touch every part of people’s lives with Nine’s content, so it’s an exciting space to be in. Add the Olympics deal on top and nine.com.au is in a truly unique position to succeed.

// What parts of the broader Nine business do you collaborate with most?

We work with a lot of the broadcast brands such as 9News, TODAY and A Current Affair because we look after their websites and online content. We also work closely with 9Now, Stan, Domain, Drive, and all other parts of Nine.  

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// Nine.com.au has a way to go to catch News.com.au.

We have a huge audience around the country. More than 10 million Australians visit us each month.

Yes, we have some big competitors, but I’m focused on our sites and what we do well. 

Take lifestyle, for instance. Six years after launching, our women’s lifestyle network 9Honey is still the most engaged lifestyle website in the country. People spend more time on 9Honey than on any of our competitor sites. That’s what we want as content creators and that’s what advertisers want too. Big numbers don’t mean anything if people don’t spend real time engaging with your content.  

// What do you think is your secret sauce?

I have an incredible team of editors who know their audience and their product. We’ve always said that people come to us for news and stay for everything else.

People are suffering with news fatigue at the moment, which is a trend we are seeing globally. People are increasingly looking for different kinds of content and that’s what we provide.   

Across Nine, we call our product offering Total Publishing. Our content is complementary, not in competition with our stablemates like The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age and The Australian Financial Review. We consider our brands to be superbrands.   

To use a travel analogy, we talk about filling every seat on the plane. So no matter what your budget, what your destination is, there’s a different brand within Nine’s Total Publishing community to fill that need. And we’re certainly seeing a lot of interest in the travel space and lifestyle in general. Sport too is on the rise with the Olympic Games coming to Nine over the next decade.

// How do you decide which vertical to enter?

It’s a combination of trusting your gut, knowing your audience and speaking with the commercial team. I consider myself to be a soccer mum from the suburbs, first and foremost.

I feel that I know our audience because I am our audience. I know what’s being discussed at the school gate, I know what my husband, who is a builder, is telling me, I know what my girlfriends are talking about, and I’ve got teenage kids and 20-year-old nieces.

So I know what they’re consuming. I know what their lives look like, I know the platforms they’re on. I think about all those things and have the right conversations with the right people before we look at spinning up those sites.  

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// How important are TV shows to your content?

There are probably 20 TV show websites within the entertainment category that we run.

But that’s the unique thing about nine.com.au. We get to represent all those mega TV brands in the digital world.   

The recent series of Married at First Sight was a perfect example of how our audience is so hungry for content on the couples and how they’re doing throughout the season. We’re also focusing on how Karl and Sarah are setting the agenda for the day on TODAY and how Ally Langdon is breaking stories on A Current Affair.   

Really, that is our unique selling point: we have the content and the access that our competitors want. They are following us. They’re writing up MAFS. They’re writing up who Ally has spoken to on A Current Affair or what Ben Fordham has said on 2GB (Nine radio). To be able to work with and digitally represent the best content in Australia makes my job the best job in media. 

Right Mafs

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In Conversation With Cosima Marriner

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Cosima Marriner started her career as a journalist at the epicentre of one of the great fevered moments in our history.

Working as a freshly graduated journalist on what was then Kerry Packer’s Australian Personal Computer magazine in 1999, Marriner found herself reporting on the frenzy of the dotcom boom as well as the near-certain doom of the Y2K bug. It was a crazy world of stupendous valuations for worthless businesses and prophecies of doom that never came to pass. It was also a foreshadowing of where her career would lead.

Like most journalists who graduated from those heady IT publishing days Marriner has certainly gone on to bigger and better things. In a recent interview with B&T's Editor-in-Chief David Hovenden, Cosima talks about jumping from the magazine world in Sydney’s Park St, and buckling up for a 20-year stint at the then Fairfax’s Sydney Morning Herald before recently being appointed managing editor of the Australian Financial Review.

// SO HOW ARE YOU FINDING THE SHIFT TO THE FINANCIAL REVIEW?

I really like it. I was at the Herald for a very long time and did a variety jobs.

So it’s been pretty refreshing and invigorating to go somewhere which is still in the family. It’s not different culturally, but different enough to be stimulating. Also, the great thing about the Financial Review is that it has a very defined audience and market niche. It makes it a lot easier when you’re trying to achieve new things because you’re not trying to appeal to everyone. You have a specific reader in mind as you’re writing.

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// Do you think that readership has changed a great deal?

It’s definitely changing. The audience is getting younger, and it is different to the previous Financial Review audience, which was very corporate and career-path orientated.

We still have a chunk of those in professional services, legal and the like. But we also have these new investor types that are dabbling in crypto or whatever. They just want to grow their wealth independently. They’re entrepreneurially minded people with a slightly different mindset to our traditional audience.

The other thing that’s very interesting is the growth in our female audience, which I am particularly focused on.

More and more women are taking key leadership roles in business and politics. You saw the success of the Teal movement at the election. The Federal Labor cabinet has 10 women in it, Woodside, Telstra, Optus – they’re all big companies that are run by female CEOs now.

A lot more women are investing in the stock market. There is a huge market there that we need to capture and represent and appeal to.

// There hasn’t been a single woman appointed to an ASX 200 board for two years. So, there’s a lot of work to be done on the equality front.

I think the Financial Review has a key role to play in accelerating that change. Showcasing female achievements, female views. Proving that it’s not just all men in suits. I think it sort of becomes a bit of a virtuous cycle.

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// Weekend readership is a success story for the AFR.

Speaking as a former editor of a Sunday paper, the great thing about the weekend is having an audience that has the time to sit back and engage with a print product in a way they don’t during the week. AFR Weekend  has really captured that trend, and COVID turbocharged growth in our weekend audience.

The beauty of AFR Weekend is that you not only have the C-Suite reading and engaging with our content
like they do during the week, you also have their partners. You get both members of the couple reading,
making decisions together about holidays, cars and investments. You have a broader offering in AFR
Weekend because you have a broader audience.

The editor, Andrew Burke, has done a great job in capturing the best of core Financial Review content, which is general business, politics, investment news, but also a bit of a lighter tone. Going with longer reads, wrapping up the week, including stories about the culture and the zeitgeist.

So it’s a good mix of core Financial Review with a broader remit, which resonates with readers. Two-
thirds of people who read the weekend AFR print edition buy it from their local newsagent so they have
to make a trip to get it, which is a great testament to the quality of the product.

// You’ve got a new inserted magazine, Fin!, as well. Tell me about that.

All credit goes to Matt Drummond the editor of AFR Magazine who came up with the concept of a new lifestyle magazine and managed to get a chunk of advertisers on board, which has underwritten it. It’s a great magazine doing fantastically well.

// What’s the proposition between that and the historic AFR magazine?

It’s much more lifestyle oriented – fashion, design, travel, style. And our digital audience data tells us that our subscribers really want that lifestyle content. It’s very well read and it improves subscriber retention. When we look at all our audience data we see that lifestyle content is one of the key drivers of conversion to subscription.

Readers that are into the lifestyle content are less likely to churn, which is very important. So we need to create more of this content. During the pandemic we shut a lot of our bespoke magazines and concentrated on the core ones. Fin! is the first new magazine product post-pandemic that we've done.

// What’s next in the pipeline? You must have a long list of KPIs in your new role.

Yes, the thing that attracted me to this role was the focus on subscriber growth and business development.

The good thing about the Financial Review is that it has done so well during the pandemic, but there are still so many growth opportunities available to us. If you want authority and trust you can’t beat the Financial Review. It’s just a question of prioritising what we should do first, and then what we should do next.

We want to give people bigger opportunities, more 360 opportunities to engage with the Financial Review, with more events, more lists, more podcasts, and more innovations like the NFT cover we did for the Power List in 2021.

Without giving too much commercially sensitive information away, we're going to expand our very successful events business. You’re going to see more summits this year. We’re going to be focusing on mining, workforce, investment and cybersecurity.

We’re also going to expand our successful lists business. And as part of that, which dovetails with the sharper focus on women, we’re going to extend our Rich Women list franchise, expanding the number of women that are included on that list. And we’re also going to create some additional content around that. The other focus for us is the B2B market. A lot of our growth during the pandemic came from the B2C segment, so we’ve now got a huge opportunity to drive B2B subscriptions. They’re natural Financial Review subscribers and they’re much less likely to churn. So we’re doubling down on targeting particular segments within that B2B audience.

We are also expanding our podcasts. We have recently launched two new podcasts – Chanticleer, featuring Australia’s most influential business columnists, Tony Boyd and James Thomson in conversation, and The Fin, a weekly news podcast hosted by Lisa Murray. Next year there will be new seasons of Julie-anne Sprague’s How I Made It, our very successful podcast from within the Rich List brand. And then we’ve got our Tech Zero podcast, which is all about how companies are adapting to reach net zero. That reaches a very powerful audience and has also been very successful from an advertising point of view.

Explore The Australian Financial Review here.

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Meet AFR Weekend’s Andrew Burke

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Rethink Ink
Meet AFR Weekend Editor,
Andrew Burke

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“We set out to provide worth to our readers every weekend." AFR Weekend’s Andrew Burke discusses how to give your readers what they need to know and what they want to read.

In B&T's ongoing Rethink Ink series, we chatted with AFR Weekend editor Andrew Burke. In his seven-year tenure, AFR Weekend has grown to be one of the most read newspapers in Australia, enjoying significant print and digital growth despite the pandemic. And As Burke reveals, its success isn't all about insider stock market tips.

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We all know the AFR during the week, but is the weekend edition all for stock market addicts who can’t switch off? The “money never sleeps” brigade?

It’s interesting and it’s hard to measure this stuff. My impression, which comes from a lot of readership surveys we’ve done, is that people read the weekend edition of the AFR as much for the investment advice as the news and political analysis.

The weekend gives people more time to read things such as our news features section that they might not have time for during the week. We’ve also got the Weekend Fin down the back of the newspaper and it's a larger, colourful section that always comes back as people’s favourite thing to read.

People buy it for what they want to know, but also what they want to read.  That’s one of the more critical differences about what we do and the Monday to Friday edition.

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Who is the AFR Weekend reader?

I’m quite proud of the fact that with the AFR Weekend we have a position that’s in the middle of the market in terms of where more financial newspapers lie.

Sure, we believe in the markets, and we play in that centre right, but we’re in the middle of the market, as far as politics are concerned.

On a political level we want to be credible, and you never want a reader to know what they’re going to read before they get there. From that respect, I think that’s something our readers value in the product. There’s independent critical analysis that’s not necessarily coming from one side of politics or the other.

If the bookies are to be believed, Albo looks a shoo-in at the next election.
I can’t imagine AFR readers being too thrilled about that.

You’d be surprised, but our readership is only marginally more skewed to the Coalition, by a few percentage points. Our view at the AFR Weekend has always been to take each of the party’s polices on their merit and never necessarily from a political party view. We just report what’s happening and from that we draw our analysis. It’s not like we’re preordained, just because one  party comes up with a policy. We’ve been very critical of the government over lots of things recently.

 

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A criticism of the AFR would be that it feels quite “male” in its style and reporting. How do you respond to that?

We’re very conscious to ensure there’s a balance in who we are interviewing. I understand that business and politics is often deemed as a very male pursuit and so we are active in trying to write about women as much as we can, never just for the sake of it. The anecdotal evidence is that a lot more women now read the AFR Weekend.

 

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This all makes for a prestige environment for advertisers.

Obviously on the weekend you’ve got a lot more time to engage with the reader. Something I’m quite proud of is that 70 per cent of our readers aren’t subscribers. That means they’re going down to their newsagent every Saturday morning to seek us out. You always want more subscribers, but I’m proud that our readers want to seek us out, and with that comes reward for the brands that form part of our product. There’s a value exchange for a product when a reader must pay for it.

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We hear about the “death of print” all the time. But the AFR Weekend’s numbers certainly tell a different story, print sales remaining surprisingly strong.

It’s a fact of life that people are carrying a little computer around in their pocket all the time these days. News is instant. But all the stories in Saturday’s paper are online on Friday afternoon, albeit behind a paywall, and our readers are still quite happy to go into a newsagent the following morning and part with $4.50 for the printed copy. I also think we have entered a period where print is being celebrated again by brands and creatives for its ability to cut through the digital tsunami and offer consumers escapism and a focus away from the always-on digital world.

Obviously B&T’s core audience is adland. How difficult can it be to take a print product like the AFR and try and sell its merits to 20-somethings in a media agency?

People read the AFR in the office, even more so now that they  are no longer working from home as much. On the weekend people are reading it in their homes, and at the same time they’re making a lot of purchasing decisions about things like investing, holidays or cars, whatever. Those sorts of decisions are made by couples and that’s where AFR Weekend comes in. People are engaged with it around the coffee table, they’re less likely to be on the phone, on the laptop, on the emails. I like to think our content goes across the demographic divide in the house, the husband or the female executive. And so you get more eyeballs on these pages.

 

Mags

For all of COVID’s faults, it’s been a boon for people seeking out media. TV and radio numbers are up markedly. How has that played out for the AFR Weekend readership?

Broadly speaking, we’ve had large increases in our digital paying subscribers and that’s enabled us to hire 20 new staff in the last couple of months. In terms of print, we’ve held up our readership really well. We saw a print readership spike of 54 per cent during the height of COVID. What we’ve been really conscious about is delivering news about the pandemic that is relevant to people. You don’t want to scare readers, you want to provide worth to your readers.

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Meet Sunday Lifes Pat Ingram

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Rethink Ink
Meet Sunday Life Editorial Director,
Pat Ingram

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"Our Philosophy has always been to celebrate women & their achievements."

Pat Ingram, Editorial Director of Sunday Life, is arguably one of the best-known names in the history of Australian magazine publishing, up there with the likes of Ita Buttrose, Kerry Packer and Nene King.

Now “a million years after those heady days”, Ingram’s words, not ours, when the Paper Giants ruled the roost, Ingram admits she still loves being back on the tools editing a single title.

Group 9

For women of all ages

What makes Sunday Life readers unique is that they are a broad demographic – young women in their 20s to women 60-plus, from singles to those in relationships, mothers and grandmothers, high-income earners and the more budget-conscious. But what they have in common is a shared love of reading fascinating profiles, thought-provoking content about love and life, and keeping across the latest trends in fashion, beauty, health, home, food and travel.

Competition in publishing is everywhere these days, Ingram says, even more so as we ease out of the pandemic. But with that competition comes discipline and the need to make bold, fast decisions.

Mags

Redefining me-time reading

Sunday Life has made significant changes to its content during the pandemic.

Ingram says: “We have retained all our editorial pillars, such as fashion, beauty, food home and health and the like, but we tailored them to fit the climate and the changing lifestyles of readers. For example, we focused our food pages more on easy family meals, our home pages on ways to update and accommodate working from home, and how to refresh the home environment.”

Similarly, Ingram says the magazine has skewed its health offering to focus more on mental health and exercise, and the beauty pages to at-home treatments.

“We encouraged our big band of high-profile regular columnists such as Jo Stanley, Brooke Boney, Dr Susan Carland, Kerri Sackville and Kathy Lette to share their pandemic experiences. And we have reinforced our commitment to being a me-time treat for our readers,” Ingram points out.

It would appear that Sunday Life’s changes have been resonating. Great readership growth across the last two quarters saw the title hit 510,000 in the latest Roy Morgan numbers.

With digital drivers keeping society obsessed with the next new thing, how has weekend publishing remained exciting after all these years?

“It’s still the thrill of producing a tactile experience,” says Ingram. “We have a sophisticated readership, and the feel of the magazine is very important. We have also upped our number of regular columnists, so readers keep getting fresh voices, while mixing up the comfort of familiarity with seasonal themed issues.

“For example, we introduced new special themed issues such as Winter Reading where we showcase leading fiction writers. We have teamed up with Good Food to produce a monthly special food section, which runs the first Sunday of every month with Sunday Life. And we’ve made our beauty and home-style pages more product-focused in line with the online shopping boom.

“As we celebrate 25 years of publishing in 2022, more special issues will mark this milestone, offering brands great go-slow content that can be leveraged to tap into our readers’ Sunday state of mind.”

Group 10

Closing the loop: From tactile experience to digital driver

“Last year we had some exciting and successful executions in conjunction with our advertising partners such as Mecca and Blackmores. Travel is another area where we expect to see greater involvement as the industry strengthens post-pandemic,” says Ingram.

“We will also innovate the way in which we help to connect the offline experience with the digital world. At last year’s Nine Upfront event, Sunday Life announced the launch of ‘shop the page’, using the simplicity of the QR code to enable instant access to retail outlets from the magazine spreads to drive retail dollars.”

Mocks

A Cover Star Tells and Sells a magazine

One thing that has never changed since newsstands dictated what people choose to read is the power of the cover star. The Sunday Life cover philosophy has always been to celebrate women and their achievements.

Ingram says: “We have broadened the range over time to reveal more women in the arts, film, literature, opera and ballet, as well as sport and politics. From Julie Bishop, Alice Pung and Deborah Mailman to Ajak Deng, we put women of all ages on the cover. From young achievers to older women. It’s about striking the right balance on who is going to intrigue, excite and garner the reader’s attention. What worked one month won’t necessarily work the next. It’s all about timing.”

With Pat Ingram at the helm, and a quarter of a century under its belt, perhaps Sunday Life’s greatest work is yet to come.

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