About The AU Review

The AU Review

Overview

The AU Review is an Australian online entertainment magazine covering music, film and television, theatre, books, video games, arts, food and travel. Based in Sydney and published by Heath Media, it has operated continuously since 2008 under the tagline "Discover the best new Music, Arts, Travel, Film, Lifestyle", making it one of the longer-running independent pop culture publications on the Australian web. Founded by editor and publisher Larry Heath as a site devoted to live music and album reviews, it grew from a one-city operation into a national network of contributors filing from every Australian state capital and beyond, and it built its reputation on early coverage of emerging Australian artists alongside reviews and interviews covering international acts. The publication remains active in 2026: its homepage in October 2026 carried new album reviews, artist interviews, film and book reviews and gaming coverage dated day by day, produced by a roster of named contributors around the country. The AU Review is free to read and has historically been produced largely by volunteers and contributing writers, a model its founder has described as central to its purpose of supporting new voices in Australian arts writing.

History

The AU Review was launched in Sydney on 6 August 2008 by founding editor and publisher Larry Heath, who started it, in trade publication Influencing's account, as a personal blog covering the national live music scene, without financial backing or advertising, bringing a background in web design and digital marketing to the project. The site's first content included reviews of Vampire Weekend and Little Red at The Metro Theatre in Sydney. It initially covered Sydney only, expanded to Melbourne soon afterwards, and focused on live music and albums by local and international artists, including coverage of the SXSW festival in Austin, Texas; the site has noted that it was among the first to review acts such as Chet Faker, Flume, Vance Joy, Amy Shark and Gang of Youths, who went on to become leading Australian artists. The website was upgraded and expanded in September 2009 to cover Byron Bay, the Gold Coast and Brisbane, and by May 2011 its coverage extended to Adelaide, Hobart, Canberra, Launceston, Wollongong and Perth. Over time the remit widened from music into visual art, film, theatre, food, lifestyle, travel and gaming. On its fifth anniversary in 2013, the publication reported a monthly readership of more than 70,000 — a figure from its own anniversary material of the time — and launched a crowdfunding campaign on Pozible, describing itself as a 100 per cent volunteer-based organisation aiming to support emerging Australian writers and photographers as well as musicians and live performance. Also in 2013, a sister publication, The Iris, was launched to cover home entertainment, film, television, video games and technology, and a further sister site, Hello Asia!, covered Asian music and culture. In January 2016 Heath stepped down as editor-in-chief after seven and a half years to concentrate on parent company Heath Media's wider media and events work; Sosefina Fuamoli, who had been on staff since about 2011, took over as editor-in-chief, and after her departure in 2018 to a new role at triple j the role was shared among team members. In 2018, for its tenth anniversary, the publication reversed an earlier format change under which the site had been split into separate segment sites: the content was merged back onto a single domain, The Iris was closed and its coverage folded into the main site, Hello Asia! remained a stand-alone sister site, and a Spotify discovery playlist was launched. The site quietly relaunched again in January 2020, merging its travel, food, music, lifestyle, arts, gaming and film and television content, and the team launched a daily online newsletter, Launch Magazine, and revived the travel podcast Jetlag.

Content and Coverage

Music remains the core of The AU Review's coverage. Its music section carries album reviews, interviews, exclusive single premieres and "track by track" features in which artists walk readers through their records; its album review archive is updated continually, with recent reviews spanning Australian and international releases across indie, pop, metal, hip hop and folk. The site's long-serving film coverage includes cinema reviews of new releases, festival reporting and interviews with actors and directors, while its arts section covers theatre productions around Australia, from mainstage musicals to independent stagings. Books coverage, including reviews of new Australian fiction, and video game reviews sit alongside travel features and food and lifestyle writing. The breadth of a single day's homepage in October 2026 illustrates the mix: an interview with Mastodon's Brann Dailor about the band's album Marrow Deep, a review of Ellena Savage's debut novel The Ruiners, a review of the video game Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls, a film review of the Anthony Bourdain biopic Tony, tour news of Kasabian's 2027 Australia and New Zealand dates, and exclusive single premieres from Australian artists. Regular contributors visible on the site in 2026 include film editor Peter Gray, music writers Bruce Baker, Hannah Lewis-Dalby, Pace Proctor, Grace Kneale and Sarah Duggan, books writer Emily Paull and gaming writer Matthew Arcari. The publication also produces events coverage and giveaways, and its team has long covered Australian music festivals and international showcases such as SXSW.

Audience and Reach

The AU Review addresses a young pop culture audience: reference profiles of the publication describe its target readership as readers aged roughly 18 to 25, and its editorial mix of new music discovery, festival coverage, film and gaming is pitched accordingly. Historically, the only quantified audience figure the publication has publicised is its own report, at its fifth anniversary in 2013, of a monthly readership of more than 70,000; that figure is dated to 2013 and is presented as such. No current audited audience or traffic figure is published for the site, and none is claimed here. The scale of its archive is itself a matter of record: the site's article archive runs to well over a thousand pages of listings, and trade coverage in 2016 described tens of thousands of articles published under the Heath Media banner. Its practical reach is also visible in its industry role: the publication's writers are accredited at Australian festivals and touring events, its reviews are quoted in artist and publicist material, and its founder's associated ventures, including the National Live Music Awards, which Heath founded, have kept the brand embedded in the Australian live music industry. The site's open letter marking its twelfth anniversary in 2020, signed by Heath as founding editor, framed the publication's purpose as championing independent media and launching the careers of writers and photographers.

Digital Presence

Theaureview.com is the publication's single home, organised by sections for music, film and TV, arts and theatre, books, games, travel and lifestyle, with author pages for its contributors and a searchable archive reaching back to 2008. The site is updated daily; in mid-October 2026 its homepage and category feeds showed new reviews, interviews and news dated the same week, and its album reviews feed was being updated within hours of this profile's preparation. Beyond the website, the publication maintains the usual social media channels, a Spotify discovery playlist launched as part of its tenth anniversary changes, the Launch Magazine daily newsletter introduced at its January 2020 relaunch, and the Jetlag travel podcast. Content from its former sister site The Iris, closed in 2018, was ported into the main site and remains readable in the archive. The publication's parent company, Heath Media, also produces live events: a November 2025 article on the site notes that Heath Media has for a decade curated Seymour Nights, the free, all-ages summer concert series at Sydney's Seymour Centre, and Heath has programmed the venue's Courtyard Sessions since 2016.

Ownership and Organisation

The AU Review is published by Heath Media, the Sydney-based company of its founder, Larry Heath, who remains founding editor and publisher of the title. Heath stepped down as editor-in-chief in January 2016, announcing at the time that he intended to develop Heath Media as a competitor in the international media and events space; Sosefina Fuamoli served as editor-in-chief from January 2016 until 2018, after which the role was shared among the team, and the site has since operated with a distributed contributor model rather than a single named editor-in-chief. Trade publication Influencing described the publication in 2016 as an independent and non-profit online publication, and the site has historically described itself as volunteer-based, relying on contributing writers and photographers around Australia; by that account, dozens of events and four books had also been produced under the Heath Media banner. Heath's wider roles have included founding the National Live Music Awards and working as an associate producer with Sounds Australia, the national music export body; reference sources record that he has been based in Toronto, Canada, in recent years while the publication continues to operate from Australia with its Australian contributor network.

Contact and Availability

The AU Review is published online only and is free to read in full at theaureview.com, with no paywall. The site invites contact from readers, artists and publicists through the website; its published editorial contact address, editor@theaureview.com, has appeared on the site in connection with reader feedback and archive corrections. Advertising and partnership enquiries are handled by Heath Media through the site. The publication does not publish a street address; its home city is Sydney, New South Wales, where it was founded in 2008 and where its parent company's events work, including the Seymour Centre concert series, is centred.