2025 Reading Trends: long form reading, stand alone articles and lifestyle content Brits favourite reads

The magazine and newspaper app Readly has released its annual report on global and UK reading trends for 2025. This year’s insights show that Brits have read 23 million digital issues on the platform and spent an average of 9 hours a month reading in the app, with lifestyle content ranking top.

Subscribers read an average of 12 different magazines and newspaper titles on Readly per month with the average reading session lasting for 20 minutes. The peak time to read magazines on the app is Wednesday at 6pm and newspapers is Sunday at 7am.

Lifestyle has become the most-read[1] magazine category on Readly with UK subscribers, overtaking celebrity and entertainment for share of total readership for the first time since the app launched in 2013. 16 percent of all issues read by UK subscribers are lifestyle titles, where readers deep dive into topics such as longevity, how AI can be used in everyday life and the weight-loss pill that has reduced waistlines all over the world this year.

Other categories with high readership in the UK includes celebrity and entertainment (14% of total UK readership across Readly) and cars & motoring (9%). Food & Drink, TV, Film & Cinema, Interior design & Architecture and tech also made the top ten most read categories as a percentage of total readership.

Globally, the most popular categories among subscribers on the platform[2] during the past 12 months were newspapers, business & finance, and lifestyle.

The most popular weekly title with UK subscribers across the 8,000 digital magazines and newspapers on Readly this year was Hello! Magazine and the most read monthly title was Good Housekeeping. The Daily Express followed by The Guardian was the most read newspaper. Whilst, BBC Good Food was the most favourited and bookmarked title with one pot and comfort food recipes a popular choice for readers.  

But it’s not just breaking news and the latest issues that subscribers are interested in as the data shows that two out of ten magazine issues read on Readly are back issues and for newspapers it’s around one in ten as subscribers explore the content and engage with the various forms and titles available across the app.

– This year’s reading trends show a strong appetite for lifestyle content, with subscribers spending time on in-depth features and long form interviews around longevity, wellbeing and living a richer life. What’s particularly encouraging, for us and our publishing partners, is that readers continue to engage deeply with long form content on Readly, contrary to belief that attention spans are shrinking. In a world obsessed by AI, readers are actively choosing trusted publications and credible voices and we’re seeing engagement is strong as a result. Subscribers want depth, context and quality so they can read widely, explore their interests and invest time in the hobbies and passions that matter most to them, says Chloe Rushmere, Head of Content UK at Readly

When readers aren’t on the sofa reading with their tablet, they are turning to consumer tips and gossip on their mobile phones. Article reading is higher on mobile (43%) than full-issue reading (18%), showing that short, on-the-go content fits smaller screens. In contrast, tablets dominate issue reading (82%), reflecting a preference for longer, more immersive sessions.

As Readly continues to personalise the reading experience and allow readers to explore reading various formats of content on the platform, it has increased the number of stand alone articles in 2025. Among the most-read stand alone articles were Katie’s confession: everyone wants to sleep with Jordan! on Closer UK magazine, Claims against Wiggins’s estate double to 2 million on Cycling Weekly and My best sex ever was with a female dominatrix on Cosmopolitan UK.

When geopolitical conflicts, climate change and economic uncertainty dominate the world, the seasoned magazine reader seeks calm and distraction in the Crosswords & Sudoku category, typically spending over 1.5 hours per session there.

The top 10 categories readers spend the longest average reading sessions in are:

○         Crosswords & Sudoku - 1 hr, 34 minutesminutes

○         TV, film and cinema - 22.56 minutes

○         Aeroplanes & Transport - 21.12 minutes

○         Music - 20.52 minutes

○         Lifestyle - 20.20 minutes

○         Science - 19.14 minutes

○         Boats & Watersports - 18.53 minutes

○         History - 18.00 minutes

○         Cars & Motoring - 17.43 minutes

○         Tech - 16.03 minutes

Readly’s audio catalogue nearly tripled in 2025 with a total audio portfolio of more than 115,000 audio articles. The top categories for audio consumption were Science, lifestyle, Cars & Motoring, Tech and News & Politics. The data shows that listening grows steadily throughout the day and peaks from mid-day to late afternoon, complementing magazine reading, which is strongest in the evenings and weekend mornings.

– As 2025 draws to a close, it’s fascinating to see how reader behaviour and interests continue to evolve. We’ve invested in diversifying content formats this year and seen strong growth in standalone articles and audio. Yet, what’s been especially encouraging is that this hasn’t come at the expense of long form reading. Subscribers are reading magazines cover to cover with strong levels of engagement, while also exploring new content and formats with real intent and curiosity, adds Chloe

UK reading snapshot 2025

●         British readers have read 23 million issues

●         21% of all titles read by UK users are foreign titles.

●         Mobile usage is 19% for magazines and 16% for newspapers.

●         Gender split

○         Magazines: 47%/53% percent men/women

○         Newspapers: 62%/38% percent men/women

●         Most read categories (total readership) are

○         Lifestyle

○         Celebrity & Entertainment

○         Cars & Motoring

○         Food & Drink

○         TV, film & cinema

○         Interior design & Architecture

○         Tech

○         Home & Renovation

○         Craft & DIY

○         Travel & Regional

●       The most popular items to bookmark and share are recipes — with this year’s winners being one pots and comfort food

●      Top search words across the titles on the app include crochet, Playboy, crime, cross stitch and Christmas

More trends and toplists are found in the full report, see Readly Trends Report 2025.

ENDS

For media enquiries:
Kate Tegelaars, press contact at Readly UK
+44 (0)7879 818 71,  kate.tegelaars@readly.com

About Readly
Readly is a European category leader for digital magazines and newspapers. The company offers a digital subscription service where customers have unlimited access to 8,000 national and international titles - all in one app and at a fixed monthly fee. Readly has subscribers in 50 countries and content available in 17 different languages. In collaboration with around 1,000 publishers worldwide, Readly is digitising the newspaper and magazine industry. In 2024, revenues amounted to SEK 725 million. For more information, please visit https://corporate.readly.com