About Australian Defence Magazine

Australian Defence Magazine

Overview

Australian Defence Magazine, known throughout the sector as ADM, is Australia's long-established defence trade magazine, reporting on the business of defence capability acquisition, sustainment and procurement. It is published by Yaffa Media from Sydney, with its editorial identity anchored in Canberra, close to the Department of Defence, the Capability Acquisition and Sustainment Group (CASG) and the federal government it covers. ADM describes its mission as providing an essential communications bridge between defence industry and its principal customer, the Department of Defence.

The ADM Group built around the magazine now spans a monthly print and digital magazine, a daily news website at australiandefence.com.au, the Defence Week and ADM Today newsletters, a podcast, a suite of conferences, two awards programs and the Defence Industry Guide. On its advertising page the publisher bills ADM Group as the largest defence trade media brand in Australia — the publisher's own characterisation — and notes that every member of the Defence Organisation is entitled to receive ADM at their desk or in their inbox.

History

ADM marked its 30th birthday in 2023, at the 20th annual ADM Congress in Canberra, placing its founding in 1993. Its founding publisher was Judy Hinz, who also originated the magazine's annual Top 40 Defence Contractors survey — the 30th edition of the survey was published in 2024, recording total Top 40 turnover of $15.7 billion for the 2023/24 financial year. Hinz was mentor to Katherine Ziesing, who became ADM's long-serving managing editor and one of the best-known journalists in Australian defence media, filing from Canberra for well over a decade.

In its early form ADM comprised the magazine, a tenders newsletter and the Directory of Defence Supplies. Under Ziesing's editorship it expanded into the multi-channel group it is today: online news, social media, five conferences a year at its peak, two awards programs, the expanded Defence Industry Guide in searchable online and hard-copy forms, podcasts, ADM Analysis reports and in-house video production. Ziesing summarised the editorial mission — inherited, she said, from Hinz — as aiming to be the communication bridge between Defence and industry, and to ensure a reader could read ADM cover to cover and learn at least one new thing.

Yaffa Media, ADM's publisher, is a family-owned Australian company founded in 1925 — it celebrated its centenary in 2025 — and publishes the magazine through Yaffa Media Pty Ltd from its Surry Hills headquarters in Sydney. In recent years Ewen Levick, formerly ADM's online editor, has stepped up as Publisher of the ADM Group, opening the 2026 ADM Congress, while associate publisher Kylie Leonard leads its Women in Defence initiatives.

Content and Coverage

ADM reports across all domains of Australian defence: capability planning and procurement, the budgetary and policy process, land, sea, air, space and cyber programs, infrastructure and estate, and the development of the ADF itself. Its signature editorial offerings include the Top 40 Defence Contractors and Top 20 SMEs survey — described by ADM as the only longitudinal survey of its kind in the world — and the long-running From the Source interview feature, a mainstay for industry leaders, ministers and service chiefs.

The website publishes news daily; on 12 October 2026 it carried the US State Department's approval of a Tomahawk missile mission-planning sale to Australia, alongside reporting on Apache sustainment, surveillance payloads for the Army's Integrator uncrewed aircraft and industry appointments. Contributors include deputy editor-at-large Nigel Pittaway, senior writers such as Max Blenkin, and regional correspondents including Mike Yeo and Corey Lee Bell.

The ADM Podcast, hosted by Grant McHerron and produced by Southern Skies Media for ADM, had reached episode 148 by March 2026, interviewing figures such as Lockheed Martin Australia's missiles leadership on the Precision Strike Missile and HIMARS programs; podcast directories record the series running since June 2020 with new episodes appearing most weeks. Newsletters include Defence Week, a premium subscription briefing, and the ADM Today e-newsletter. The magazine also publishes themed editions aligned to the major expos — an Avalon Air Show edition and land forces editions appear in its past-editions archive — and the Defence Industry Guide, published every six months in the form recorded by its masthead.

Events and awards are a substantial part of the group. The ADM Congress, held in Canberra, reached its 20th edition in 2023 and was staged again in 2026, when it was opened by publisher Ewen Levick and addressed by the Chief of Navy. ADM also runs the Women in Defence Awards — whose 2020 virtual gala drew more than 600 attendees, according to the magazine — the ADM 30 Under 30 Awards launched at the 2023 Congress to encourage young people into the defence industry, and regional events including the Northern Australia Defence Summit and South Australian Defence Summit, together with the Women in Defence Network breakfast series launched in 2025.

Audience and Reach

ADM's readership is the Australian defence establishment and the industry that supplies it. Its 2021 media kit identified CASG as the primary target readership, together with related Defence organisations such as the Defence Science and Technology Group, the Chief Information Officer Group and the Defence Estate and Infrastructure Group, plus ministerial offices and the defence industry itself. The magazine's own advertise page states that every member of the Defence Organisation is entitled to receive ADM, and that the brand holds preferential access arrangements for its events — both publisher statements, presented here as such.

No independently audited circulation figure for ADM is published in the sources relied on for this profile, and none is claimed. Its reach is better evidenced by the longevity of its survey and events franchises and by the seniority of the officials and executives who appear in its interview features and on its conference stages.

Digital Presence

ADM's website operates a metered paywall — visitors are offered a limited number of free articles before being asked to subscribe — and carries daily news, the digital edition of the monthly magazine, past editions, the Defence Industry Guide and event and award coverage. The title marked its presence in 2026 with dated news through October 2026, the ADM Congress 2026 and podcast episodes numbered into the high 140s, confirming it is currently operating.

Ownership and Organisation

Australian Defence Magazine is published by Yaffa Media Pty Ltd, part of the family-owned Yaffa Media group headquartered at 17–21 Bellevue Street, Surry Hills, Sydney. Yaffa's managing director is Tracy Yaffa. Within the ADM Group, Ewen Levick is publisher, Kylie Leonard is associate publisher, and the editorial team has historically been led from Canberra — the 2020 masthead listed managing editor Katherine Ziesing on a Canberra telephone number, with the magazine published in the second week of each month. The group's commercial team includes national sales manager Michael Flanagan.

The Canberra listing for ADM reflects that editorial base and the magazine's Canberra-centred events — its Congress and awards are held in the capital — rather than its publisher's Sydney headquarters.

Contact and Availability

Subscriptions to ADM's print and digital editions are handled by Yaffa Media; the magazine's published contact email for editorial and podcast enquiries is defmag@yaffa.com.au, and Yaffa Media's Sydney office can be reached on (02) 9281 2333. The website is at australiandefence.com.au, where readers can access news, the digital edition, the Defence Industry Guide and details of ADM events and awards.