About InStyle Australia

InStyle Australia

InStyle Australia is the Australian edition of the international fashion and lifestyle magazine InStyle, relaunched in 2022 by independent publisher True North Media after the title's closure by Bauer Media Australia in 2020. Published in a digital-first format with biannual print editions, it covers fashion, beauty, celebrity and lifestyle from its Sydney base under editor-in-chief Justine Cullen, carrying forward a masthead that has been part of the Australian magazine landscape for more than two decades.

Overview

InStyle Australia is a fashion and lifestyle publication aimed at women interested in style, beauty, popular culture and contemporary living. Under its current ownership it operates as a digital-first brand — a website with daily fashion and beauty content, live events, branded content partnerships and two print editions a year positioned as luxury seasonal guides. The relaunch was built on the title's established social-media following of more than 874,000, giving the new publisher an existing audience from day one.

The title's history in Australia spans two distinct eras: the Bauer Media (and before it, ACP Magazines) era of monthly print publication, and the current True North Media era of digital-first publishing with print as a premium complement. The inventory listing for this profile carried the URL homebeautiful.com.au — the address of a different Are Media homes title — which is not the magazine's website; the website field is left blank here rather than repeating an incorrect address.

History

InStyle was founded in the United States in 1994 and grew into one of the world's major fashion monthlies, with editions across Europe, Asia and Latin America. The Australian edition was published for many years by ACP Magazines and then Bauer Media Australia as a monthly fashion and lifestyle title, competing in the crowded Australian women's glossies market alongside Vogue Australia, Harper's Bazaar Australia, Elle Australia and Marie Claire.

In July 2020 Bauer Media Australia announced the closure of eight titles, citing the collapse of advertising revenue during the COVID-19 pandemic. InStyle was among them, alongside Harper's Bazaar Australia, Elle Australia, Men's Health Australia, Women's Health Australia, Good Health, NW and OK! Australia. The closures were part of a wave of magazine shutdowns that reshaped Australian publishing; Bauer itself was sold to Mercury Capital soon after and rebranded as Are Media, which declined to revive the closed fashion titles.

The InStyle brand did not stay dormant for long. In 2022 True North Media, an independent publisher led by publisher and chief executive Simon Bookallil, acquired the Australian and New Zealand rights to the title. The relaunch was announced as a digital-first proposition: an online magazine with video, animation and interactive design, live events and branded content, with plans for two print editions a year. The first issue under the new ownership was scheduled for 15 April 2022. Industry coverage at the time noted that InStyle was the last of the three closed fashion titles to return — Harper's Bazaar had come back under Hearst and Switzer Media & Publishing, and Elle had been revived by Are Media as a digital-only brand.

The True North Media era

True North Media was established as an independent publishing venture, with InStyle as its first launch title. The company set out to reimagine the magazine for the way audiences consume media in the 2020s: design-rich digital editions incorporating video and animation, a website built for dynamic fashion and beauty content, events and experiences for readers, and commercial partnerships with luxury advertisers.

Editor-in-chief Justine Cullen, also True North Media's chief content officer, is an award-winning magazine editor whose appointment signalled serious editorial intent. Speaking to AdNews at the relaunch, Cullen argued that the power of legacy mastheads lay in their familiarity — recognisable to audiences and a trusted environment for advertisers — and that what had changed was the ability to reimagine the offering for contemporary media consumption. The relaunched title operates on a fully advertising-supported model, with no paywall on the digital edition; Cullen noted the business was structured so that a paywall could be introduced later if warranted, but that it was not part of the initial plan.

The biannual print editions were conceived as the luxury centrepieces of the content ecosystem — seasonal guides produced to high production values, aimed at readers who still value the immersive experience of print. Advertising demand for the relaunch was reported as strong, with luxury partners signed for display and branded content and significant interest in the print editions.

Content and positioning

InStyle's editorial mix covers the standard territory of the fashion glossy: seasonal fashion trends, beauty, celebrity interviews and red-carpet coverage, lifestyle features and shopping guides. The Australian edition's point of difference has always been its local lens — Australian designers, Australian faces, and fashion and beauty content calibrated to the southern hemisphere's seasons, a non-trivial consideration for a market whose summer falls in December.

Under True North Media the brand has leaned into digital storytelling formats: video interviews, animated editorial features, and social-first content designed for the title's large existing social following. The live-events programme — a staple of the modern magazine business model — brings readers together with the brand's editors and commercial partners.

The Australian fashion magazine market

InStyle Australia operates in a fashion publishing market that has been fundamentally restructured since 2020. The closures of that year removed three major glossies at once; their returns under different owners — Harper's Bazaar with Hearst and Switzer, Elle as an Are Media digital brand, InStyle with True North Media — created a new competitive set of independent and corporate publishers. Vogue Australia (News Corp) and Marie Claire Australia (Are Media) remain the corporate heavyweights, while the relaunched independents compete on agility, digital innovation and the enduring equity of their mastheads.

The US parent title's own trajectory mirrors the shift: in 2022 the American InStyle moved to an all-digital format, with owner Dotdash Meredith stating that print was no longer serving the brand's core purpose. The Australian edition's digital-first model with selective print editions follows the same logic — print as a premium, occasional product rather than the monthly engine of the business.

Editorial leadership

Justine Cullen's appointment as editor-in-chief gave the relaunched InStyle immediate credibility in the Australian fashion industry. A former editor of the Australian Women's Weekly and an award-winning magazine editor, Cullen brought deep experience of both print glossies and digital publishing to True North Media's dual role of editor-in-chief and chief content officer. Publisher and chief executive Simon Bookallil, who leads the company's marketing, sales and commercial strategy, framed the relaunch around the InStyle brand's global trust and digital growth — positioning the Australian edition as the local expression of a worldwide fashion media property rather than a standalone start-up.

Outlook

InStyle Australia's second life is a case study in the economics of the modern magazine: a legacy masthead, an existing audience, and a new owner willing to rebuild the business around digital content, events and a small number of high-value print editions. Whether the model sustains the title over the long term will depend on the advertising market that closed it in 2020 — but the relaunch demonstrated that in Australian fashion publishing, strong brands can outlive the companies that shuttered them. For readers, the return meant one more Australian voice in the global fashion conversation, reporting the seasons as they actually happen south of the equator.