About Take 5

Take 5

Take 5 is an Australian weekly magazine published in Sydney by Are Media. Launched in 1998 and on sale every Thursday, it is a real-life magazine built on true stories submitted by readers, alongside a pull-out puzzle book, recipes, fashion, health news and tips. Aimed primarily at women but popular with all ages and genders, it has become one of Australia's best-read weekly magazines — and is famous for its outlandish cover lines, which have been celebrated in viral round-ups.

Overview

Take 5 occupies a distinctive corner of the Australian magazine market: the "real life" weekly. Rather than leading with celebrity news, its pages are filled with extraordinary true stories — medical marvels, crime and survival accounts, family dramas, coincidences and human triumph — many of them contributed directly by readers. The magazine pairs these stories with a substantial puzzle offering: a pull-out puzzle book in which readers can win prizes by entering completed puzzles by post or online. Recipes, fashion, health news and practical tips round out the package.

The title's arch rival is That's Life!, Are Media's other real-life weekly, and the two have competed for the same readers for more than two decades. Take 5's tone is warm, populist and direct; its cover lines — breathless, pun-laden and occasionally surreal — have become a cultural signature, collected and shared by readers and by sites such as BuzzFeed.

History

Take 5 was launched in 1998 by what was then the Bauer Media operation in Australia, entering a market already served by the real-life weekly That's Life!. The concept — reader-submitted true stories plus a prize-winning puzzle book — proved durable, and the magazine built a large and loyal readership through the 2000s and 2010s.

The brand passed through the same corporate transitions as its sister titles. Bauer Media Australia bought Pacific Magazines from Seven West Media in 2020; in June 2020 the Sydney investment firm Mercury Capital acquired Bauer Media's Australian and New Zealand magazine assets, and in late September 2020 the business was rebranded as Are Media, which has published Take 5 since. The title's editorial leadership has included Paul Merrill, named Editor of the Year at the 2016 Australian Magazine Awards — the same year Take 5 won Magazine of the Year in the general interest category. Rachel Williams is the current editor.

Take 5 was published by Bauer Media Pty Ltd and headquartered in Sydney from its launch, and it kept its weekly Thursday rhythm through the corporate upheavals of the late 2010s. The 2016 Australian Magazine Awards double — Magazine of the Year in the general interest category and Editor of the Year for Merrill — marked the title's peak industry recognition, rewarding a formula that had made it one of the most consistently read weeklies in the country.

Take 5 has repeatedly used its mass-market platform for social campaigns alongside its entertainment content, a tradition that distinguishes it from purely celebrity-driven weeklies.

Campaigns and causes

The magazine's best-known campaigns have tackled issues affecting its readership directly. "One Strike & You're Out" campaigned against domestic violence; "Break the Ice" addressed ice (methamphetamine) addiction as the drug's toll on Australian families became a national concern; and "Chums For Mums" focused on post-natal depression, encouraging new mothers to seek support. The campaigns ran across the magazine's print pages and digital channels, lending a readership of hundreds of thousands of Australians to public-health causes — and demonstrating how the real-life weekly format, built on reader identification with the stories it tells, can be turned toward advocacy.

Content and Features

Each Thursday's issue is structured around the true-story engine that defines the brand: first-person accounts of extraordinary experiences, often sourced from readers, spanning health scares, crime, rescue, romance and family sagas. The pull-out puzzle book remains a core draw, with prize entry by post or online. Regular departments cover recipes, fashion and beauty, health news and practical household tips.

The cover lines are a phenomenon in themselves. Take 5 has won awards and attention for lines of escalating absurdity — the kind of headlines that compress an entire drama into a dozen words — and compilations of the funniest examples have circulated widely online, with BuzzFeed creating posts featuring some of the most remarkable specimens. The magazine's cover-line style has given it a second life in social media culture well beyond its print readership, turning a weekly newsagent impulse buy into shareable internet content.

The real-life weekly market

Take 5's great rival is That's Life!, published by the same company. The two titles have competed for the same readers for more than two decades, both built on reader-submitted true stories, puzzles with prizes, and covers pitched at impulse purchase in newsagents and supermarkets. That the rivalry now plays out inside a single publisher — Are Media owns both mastheads — is a measure of how thoroughly Australian magazine consolidation has reshaped the market.

Readership data shows the scale both titles have commanded. An EMMA survey in May 2017 recorded Take 5 reaching an average of 754,000 readers every week, ranking it among the best-read magazines in Australia. Roy Morgan data reported by B&T in 2018 put Take 5's readership at 495,000 (down 6.3 per cent on the prior year) and That's Life! at 657,000 (down 5.2 per cent) — still, in B&T's words, "significant readerships" in a contracting print market. Audited circulation for Take 5 has been reported at around 174,816 copies. The figures come from different surveys and years, but together they describe a title that has remained one of Australia's most-read weeklies across a decade of industry decline.

Coverage and Audience

Take 5 is aimed at a mainly female demographic but is popular with all ages and genders, and its readership has consistently ranked among the strongest of Australia's weekly magazines. An EMMA survey in May 2017 recorded an average of 754,000 readers every week, making it one of the best-read magazines in the country; audited circulation has been reported at around 174,816 copies. The magazine is distributed nationally through newsagents and supermarkets. Its Thursday on-sale date positions each issue for weekend reading, and the impulse-buy channels of newsagents and supermarket checkouts have been central to its circulation strategy since launch. Like its sister titles, it is sold in print and digital editions through Are Media's subscription platforms.

Ownership

Take 5 is owned and published by Are Media, the Sydney-based magazine company owned by the investment firm Mercury Capital. Are Media was formed in September 2020 from the rebranded Bauer Media Australia, which had acquired Pacific Magazines, ACP Magazines and Australian Consolidated Press assets during the 2010s. The magazine is headquartered in Sydney, New South Wales.

Digital Presence

Take 5's official website, take5mag.com.au, carries real-life stories, puzzle content and lifestyle features between the weekly print issues, and supports the magazine's prize-entry mechanics with online entry alongside the traditional postal route. The brand also sits within Are Media's Now to Love digital network, and maintains active social media channels where its famous cover lines are frequently shared and discussed. Print and digital subscriptions are sold through the publisher's online platforms, and back issues remain available through newsagent distribution channels nationally.

Are Media has marketed the title with the tagline "Australia's best real life magazine", a positioning reflected in the publisher's own brand materials for the title.