Shock reshuffle at Australian Women’s Weekly as top editor departs

Résumé détaillé

Sophie Tedmanson has left the magazine after three years – and her role may no longer exist.

It used to be one of the most prized jobs in Australian journalism. Now the role of editor at The Australian Women’s Weekly may no longer exist at all.

That’s the word in Australian media circles, after staff at the women’s magazine were told earlier this month that editor Sophie Tedmanson was set to depart the business, according to people familiar with the developments, after three years at the magazine.

The Australian Women’s Weekly is published by the nation’s biggest magazine publisher, Are Media, which also owns supermarket favourites including Better Homes and Gardens, Marie Clare, New Idea and Elle.

Are Media, through a spokesman, confirmed Tedmanson had vacated her role as editor, but would not be drawn on whether the position would be cut altogether. Instead, the publisher said it would soon begin recruitment for the “newly created role” of editorial director of The Australian Women’s Weekly and Women’s Weekly Food.

During the publishing industry’s heyday, the top job at The Australian Women’s Weekly was among the most influential in the business. It has been filled by a string of big names, including former ABC chair Ita Buttrose, Helen McCabe, who went on to found Future Women and is now a non-executive director at Claire Kimball’s The Squiz, and Deborah Thomas, who spent close to a decade in the top job before moving into corporate roles at ACP Magazines.

Are Media claims AWW has a monthly print readership of 1.3 million and a multi-platform audience of 2.8 million. Roy Morgan Research has the monthly print readership at 1.4 million in the year to June 2026 and a multi-platform audience of 1.64 million.

But the publisher clearly doesn’t like what it sees, with the Weekly now slipping to Australia’s second most-read paid magazine after Better Homes and Gardens. How else to explain all the change going on at 54 Park Street?

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