About RoyalAuto

RoyalAuto

RoyalAuto is the member magazine of RACV (Royal Automobile Club of Victoria), published in Melbourne for one of Australia's largest motoring organisations — a mutual with more than two million members and a presence in over 70% of Victorian households. Launched in 1953 as a full-colour magazine, it had an audited circulation of over 1.4 million as at September 2016, with sources claiming it was Australia's highest-circulating monthly magazine; it later became the bimonthly member magazine RA, published in print and online, with content continuing in the News & Lifestyle section of the RACV website.

Overview

RoyalAuto is RACV's flagship member publication: motoring, travel, home and lifestyle content for Victoria's drivers and households. The 2019 inserts kit billed it as "Victoria's largest circulation publication and the state's most read magazine," with inserts delivered to more than 70 per cent of Victorian homes. The title's pillars — living, travelling, moving — map onto RACV's sprawling member businesses: motoring and roadside assistance, insurance and finance, home security, drive school and vehicle inspections, leisure and travel, and the RACV resorts (Cape Schanck, Torquay, Inverloch, Goldfields, Cobram, Healesville, Noosa, Royal Pines, Hobart).

History

RACV's first magazine appeared in 1922 as a supplement to The Australian Motorist; it launched as a stand-alone publication in the mid-1920s called the Royal Auto Journal. The Radiator, a newspaper-format publication, followed in the mid-1930s. In 1953 a new full-colour magazine, Royalauto, was launched — the direct ancestor of today's title. The mid-century issues show the magazine as a campaigning voice: 1960s issues of Royal Auto reported on the removal of the cable tram track in Victoria Parade, photographed Toorak Road and Chapel Street traffic, and documented the impact of parked cars and trams on Melbourne's streets — the club's advocacy for motorists rendered as street-level photojournalism.

The magazine grew with the club: as at September 2016 RoyalAuto had an audited circulation of over 1.4 million — claimed as Australia's highest-circulating monthly. It later evolved into the bimonthly member magazine RA, published in print and online, with the RoyalAuto masthead continuing across RACV's News & Lifestyle content.

Content and positioning

The magazine's three pillars — living, travelling, moving — deliver home improvement and lifestyle features, Victorian and interstate travel inspiration (including the RACV resorts), and motoring content from roadside advice to new-car coverage. As a member benefit rather than a newsstand purchase, its positioning is service journalism for the RACV household: practical, trusted, and tied to the member's products.

The member-exclusive model

RoyalAuto's economics are the opposite of the newsstand's. It is a member-exclusive magazine, "sheltered from many of the misfortunes that have hit the print industry in the last decade," as managing editor Alison Dean told Mediaweek in 2017. It arrives as addressed mail \u2014 "we are not perceived as junk mail" \u2014 and the research backs the model: RACV's marketing research showed the magazine was the second-strongest benefit the club provided to members. "Even in this day and age there are a lot of people that still want the magazine," Dean said. With 2.1 million members in Victoria at the time \u2014 1.4 million of whom received the magazine \u2014 and an audited circulation of over 1.434 million (CAB, September 2016), the title was Australia's highest-circulating monthly magazine: "That's an audited figure so it's not just us making it up." In the 12 months to December 2016 it was among the top 20 most-read titles in Australia \u2014 #8 by emma with a readership of 835,000, #10 by Roy Morgan with 642,000. The competitive set Dean named shows the breadth: "With the magazine covering multiple areas that on-stand magazines specialise in \u2014 for example, Vogue Living with home, Australian Traveller with travel, and Just Cars with motoring \u2014 RoyalAuto is competition for a lot of custom and on-stand magazines, not just motoring titles."

Digital evolution

When Dean joined in 2011, RoyalAuto was a 92-page magazine "with close to no presence on digital" \u2014 the same was true of RACV itself. The magazine's digital edition led the company's online push: "The actual magazine had a mobile-responsive website before the rest of the company did." An award-winning iPad app followed, competing "strongly against the more established brands like donna hay and Gourmet Traveller," before the brand moved to a faster mobile-app news-reader format. The title's own website and Facebook were later absorbed under the RACV company website and social pages \u2014 "more important to have that connection through all of the channels" \u2014 with RoyalAuto-branded content remaining prominent. Video became a major investment: car reviews, travel features and road-safety content, with digital editions using infographics, text animation, large pictures and video. Dean's verdict on print's future was honest: with survey respondents unanimous \u2014 "there is not one person that will say they want the magazine purely online" \u2014 she didn't see print going anywhere "in the short-to-medium term," while conceding "it may change in the long term."

Investigative journalism: Impact

The member-exclusive model has not kept the title from hard journalism. In 2016 the brand published "Impact," a road-trauma video series that took 12 months to produce \u2014 "one of the biggest undertakings by RoyalAuto in video to date." The series partnered with Victoria's two adult trauma hospitals (The Alfred and Royal Melbourne Hospital), Ambulance Victoria, the police and other emergency services; Seven News used RoyalAuto footage to produce "Impact" for the nightly TV news. The investigation won the TAC Towards Zero Quill Award for road safety reporting that year \u2014 a member magazine beating the state's newsrooms at their own game.

Coverage and audience

RoyalAuto serves RACV's 2+ million members across Victoria — present in over 70% of Victorian households — with inserts reaching more than 70% of homes. Its audience is Victorian drivers, homeowners and travellers of all ages; RACV's corporate strategy has increasingly targeted young Victorians (under 30s) as a large and lucrative segment.

The club behind the magazine

RACV, established in 1903 and based on Bourke Street, Melbourne, is Victoria's peak motoring and mobility advocacy body and the state's largest member organisation \u2014 2.29 million members in 2025, $1 billion revenue, 4,000+ staff. Its businesses span emergency roadside assistance, car loans, vehicle and home insurance (underwritten by IAG), travel insurance, home security, drive school and vehicle inspections, energy retail and solar, Home Trades Hub Australia, and ten properties across Victoria, Queensland and Tasmania \u2014 including the RACV Club's Melbourne City Club and Healesville Country Club & Resort. The 2012 tax-submission record noted that "'Royal Auto' magazine, which represents a significant member benefit and is produced at considerable cost to RACV," embodied the club's objects \u2014 promoting the interests of motorists in good roads, safety and consumer protection \u2014 "through promoting road safety to its readership of approximately 1.5 million Victorians." The magazine is, in other words, a line item the mutual funds deliberately: advocacy as publishing.

Ownership

RoyalAuto is published by RACV (Royal Automobile Club of Victoria), a mutual organisation owned by members rather than shareholders — value earned is returned to members through discounts and benefits. RACV has served and advocated for its members since 1903. Further ownership and financial details are not publicly confirmed.

Digital presence

The brand continues at racv.com.au/royalauto.html and across the News & Lifestyle section of racv.com.au — news, reviews and advice "to inspire Victorians, whether you're at home, on the road or travelling" — alongside the RACV App's member-benefit content.

Sources and further reading

• Wikipedia, "Royal Automobile Club of Victoria" — publication history, circulation.
• RACV Royalauto Inserts Kit 2019 — circulation and reach claims.
• Victorian Collections — 1960s Royal Auto issues as campaigning photojournalism.