Dish tops the charts with 50% audience jump

A huge increase in print and digital readership has seen food publication Dish crowned New Zealand’s most-read lifestyle publication across all platforms.

New figures from Roy Morgan show Dish had a total cross-platform audience (print, web or app) of 237,000 in the year to June 2025, up 53.9% from the previous year.

This puts it on the podium of New Zealand’s most-read publications, behind only AA Directions (493,000 total audience) and New Zealand Listener (278,000) and ahead of New Zealand Woman’s Day.

While its digital audience has grown significantly, Dish also increased its print readership by a massive 39,000 to 125,000.

This growth vaulted it to fourth place in the print readership rankings, narrowly behind NZ Woman’s Day (130,000), and just ahead of Air New Zealand’s inflight magazine Kia Ora (123,000).

Deliver what audience wants

Dish recently secured a big supermarket distribution deal in Australia, and Dish CEO and editor Sarah Tuck says she’s “bloody pumped” to see it become the third most-read publication on this side of the Tasman.

“In a market where we see magazine sales faltering, Dish has continued to grow year-on-year for the last six years. We started with the goal of being New Zealand’s biggest-selling food and drinks title, but in the process have grown so much that our results surpass all other lifestyle titles.”

Tuck says part of their strategy has been a laser-focus on delivering what their audience wants, determined by twice-yearly surveys yielding up to 4,000 detailed responses each time.

“Meanwhile we have given the same attention to our digital audience, focusing on our website, social platforms and building our EDM mailout to 58,000 twice a week, with an outstanding open rate of 53% and click through rate of 11%.

“If any marketer or advertiser in New Zealand is looking to reach affluent, highly engaged women aged 35-plus, no matter the product (lifestyle-related/finance/auto/etc) Dish should be their first port of call.

“When a research agency describes our increase as ‘massive’ we can’t help but celebrate…and agree!”

Dish dominates

Dish commercial manager Bel Bonnor says: “Our media landscape is constantly evolving, and a lot of print-only media has been left behind.

“We are proud to have such a loyal (and still growing!) print audience, but we have also relentlessly grown our digital offerings and expertise.

“While our website, EDMs and social channels may have started as future-proofing tactics, the result is an entire digital media platform that could stand completely on its own now! We’re so proud to say that Dish has the largest cross-platform audience of any lifestyle title in New Zealand.”

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