Readership for grocery giants Coles and Woolworths' print magazines have trounced the Australian newspaper industry, its average figures from May 2015 to June 2016 almost tripling the country’s top performing newspapers.

According to the latest metrics from emma audience reports, Australia’s most read mag Woolworths Fresh Magazine reached an audience peaking at 3.74 million for the year – almost tripling the country’s top performing newspaper The Herald Sun.

The Victoria-based weekly paper hit a print readership figure of 1.25 million, followed closely by The Sunday Telegraph with its maximum audience a little over one million.

Coles’ monthly mag has a print-run of 1.5 million per month, and is printed by IPMG. Woolies prints 750,000 magazines a month and is printed by IPMG-owned offset printer Hannanprint.

Both Woolworths and Coles’ magazines are free-of-charge and are circulated in supermarkets across the country.

ProPrint contacted Hannanprint and parent company IPMG for comment on the booming magazines, however neither printer was able to discuss specific contracts.

[Related: Coles and Woolies mags top circulation]

Australia’s second most read magazine, supermarket Coles’ eponymous glossy mag Coles Magazine reached a readership of 3.3 million, also trumping the biggest newspapers in the country.

Both supermarket magazines seized the two top spots on the print magazine report, with lifestyle mag Better Homes and Gardens sitting as the third highest, reaching 2.1 million readers for the period.

The impressive readership for magazines comes as print newspapers face an uncertain future.

Fairfax chief executive Greg Hywood recently flagged the likely closure of printed weekday publishing, confessing his firm belief that a digital-only model was on the horizon.

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