About Rolling Stone Australia

Rolling Stone Australia

Rolling Stone Australia is the Australian and New Zealand edition of the American Rolling Stone magazine, devoted to music, politics and popular culture. First launched as a student supplement in 1970 and a full-fledged magazine in 1972, it was for decades the longest-surviving international edition of Rolling Stone in the world. After a two-year hiatus following its publisher's collapse in 2018, it returned in 2019 under The Brag Media and now publishes as Rolling Stone Australia / New Zealand under the Vinyl Group.

Overview

Rolling Stone Australia is a quarterly music magazine based in Sydney, covering music, politics, sports, television, film and culture across print, digital, social, podcasts, video and live events. The current edition serves both Australia and New Zealand — separate websites, au.rollingstone.com and nz.rollingstone.com, with an identical print publication for both countries. The editor-in-chief is Neil Griffiths. The magazine is published by the Vinyl Group (formerly Vinyl Media), which absorbed The Brag Media, in an exclusive licensing deal with Rolling Stone owner Penske Media Corporation.

History

Few Australian magazines have a more storied history. The Australian version of Rolling Stone began life in 1970 as a supplement in Revolution magazine, put together by Monash University student Phillip Frazer, who launched it as a fully fledged magazine in January 1972. (Some accounts date the supplement to 1969 in Go-Set magazine.) It was the longest-surviving international edition of Rolling Stone anywhere in the world — a remarkable run that spanned punk, new wave, grunge, hip-hop and the streaming era.

The roll call of former editors reads like a who's who of Australian music journalism: James Jennings, Jake Challenor, Poppy Reid, Tyler Jenke, Rod Yates, Mat Coyte, Dan Lander, Simon Wooldridge, Rachel Newman, Elissa Blake, Andrew Humphries, Kathy Bail, Toby Creswell, Paul Gardiner, Jane Mathieson, and Phillip Frazer himself (with Alistair Jones). Publishers over the decades included Silvertongues (1974 to 1987), Next Media, and ACP/Bauer Media Group.

The title's modern crisis came in January 2018, when Sydney-based publisher Paper Riot — founded in 2013 by Rolling Stone Australia editor Matthew Coyte specifically to take the title over from Bauer Media — went into external administration and then liquidation. The January 2018 issue was the last, ending 46 years of continuous publication. "The license has reverted back to the owner, Rolling Stone International," Coyte told Mumbrella at the time. "I can't tell you what their plans are moving forward or make any further comment." The timing was brutal: founder Jann Wenner had sold his majority stake in the American parent to Penske Media — publisher of Variety and IndieWire — the previous year, and the Indonesian edition of the magazine had also just closed. The Emma print report for November 2017 had estimated the Australian edition's annual issue readership at 230,000.

Reflecting on the 2018 closure, the edition's founder Phillip Fraser wrote about launching the publication 46 years earlier: "We all believed, with varying levels of conviction, that rock ’n’ roll was an expression of an emerging youth culture that would change the world." The title's survival from that student-magazine origin to the longest-lived international Rolling Stone — outlasting editions across Europe, Asia and Latin America — made its two-year absence feel, to its readers, like a genuine hole in the country's music press.

The revival came quickly. Penske Media Corporation announced the local arm's return as part of a global expansion, and The Brag Media — publisher of Tone Deaf, The Brag, Don't Bore Us and The Industry Observer — secured the Australian rights. "Rolling Stone is the most iconic music brand of all time and has meant so much to music, entertainment, and politics for over 50 years," said The Brag Media CEO Luke Girgis. "We are extremely privileged to have it join The Brag Media family." The Brag's team of 20 worked on the relaunch, with editor Tyler Jenke and managing editor Poppy Reid drawing on freelance writers, and the new operation promised content across digital, social, podcasts, events and more.

The masthead relaunched online on 3 February 2020 after the two-year hiatus — the second legacy music media brand to launch in Australia in a matter of months, in what The Music Network called a sign of "the rebounding health of music publishing in this country." The launch feature, by Ben Hagemann, asked whether Western Sydney drill-rap group OneFour had summoned "a 21st century assault on free speech" — a statement of intent that the new Rolling Stone Australia would engage with politics and culture as well as music. In 2022, The Brag expanded the operation to New Zealand and rebranded the magazine as Rolling Stone Australia / New Zealand. The Brag Media was subsequently absorbed into the Vinyl Group, which now publishes the title.

Content and Features

The magazine's remit — music, politics, sports, TV, film and culture — mirrors the American parent's, with a mix of syndicated international editorial and original locally produced content. Recent covers have featured Australian acts, including the March 2025 cover starring Melbourne pub-punk band Amyl and the Sniffers. The print edition is quarterly; the digital platforms operate continuously, with news, features, reviews, video, podcasts and social content.

The relaunch-era editorial team — editor Tyler Jenke, managing editor Poppy Reid — set out to cover the full breadth of popular culture, and the magazine's subsequent editors, including James Jennings, Jake Challenor and current editor-in-chief Neil Griffiths, have continued that approach. Like the American edition, the Australian magazine combines long-form music journalism and artist interviews with political and cultural commentary.

The Brag-to-Vinyl era

The Brag Media's stewardship ended when the company was absorbed into the Vinyl Group, the music-technology business behind the Vinyl.com platform. The title now publishes as Rolling Stone Australia / New Zealand under Vinyl Group ownership, still licensed from Penske Media Corporation, with Neil Griffiths as editor-in-chief. The continuity of the licence through three publishers in a decade — Bauer, Paper Riot, The Brag/Vinyl — testifies to the brand's resilience in a market where specialist music print has otherwise thinned dramatically.

Coverage and Audience

Based in Sydney, the magazine covers Australian and New Zealand music and culture for a national (and trans-Tasman) audience, supplemented by syndicated content from the American Rolling Stone. The print publication is identical for both countries, while the websites serve localised content. Wikipedia lists the magazine's circulation at 180,000; the last pre-closure readership figure, from the Emma survey of November 2017, was an estimated 230,000 annual issue readers. Current readership figures are not publicly confirmed.

Ownership

Rolling Stone Australia is published by the Vinyl Group (formerly Vinyl Media/The Brag Media) under an exclusive licence from Penske Media Corporation, the American owner of the Rolling Stone brand. The Brag Media's CEO at the time of the 2019 deal was Luke Girgis; "This new partnership in Australia, where Rolling Stone has a rich history, allows us to give readers in this important market access to the brand's unparalleled editorial content and world-class live events," said Gus Wenner, President and COO of Rolling Stone, when the deal was announced. Further ownership and financial details are not publicly confirmed.

Digital Presence

The magazine operates at au.rollingstone.com (Australia) and nz.rollingstone.com (New Zealand) — the website Wikipedia lists as the title's official site — alongside active social media channels, podcasts and video content. The digital relaunch of February 2020 was the centrepiece of The Brag Media's revival strategy, with the publisher promising "premium content across multiple platforms including digital, social, podcasts, video, merchandising and events." The websites carry both original Australian and New Zealand reporting and syndicated editorial from the international Rolling Stone network.

Sources and Further Reading

• Wikipedia, "Rolling Stone Australia / New Zealand" — publication history, editors, frequency, publisher and websites.
• AdNews, "The Brag Media to publish Rolling Stone Australia" — the 2019 rights deal, team, and executive quotes.
• Print21, "Without a home: Rolling Stone Australia" — the 2018 Paper Riot collapse and end of the 46-year run.
• The Music Network, "Rolling Stone Australia returns after two-year hiatus" — the February 2020 relaunch and launch feature.