Shock reshuffle at Australian Women’s Weekly as top editor departs

November 11, 2026 — 5:26pm

It used to be one of the most prized jobs in Australian journalism. Now the role of editor at The Australian Women’s Weekly may no longer exist at all.

That’s the word in Australian media circles, after staff at the women’s magazine were told earlier this month that editor Sophie Tedmanson was set to depart the business, according to people familiar with the developments, after just three years at the magazine.

The Australian Women’s Weekly is published by the nation’s biggest magazine publisher, Are Media, which also owns supermarket favourites including Better Homes and Gardens, Marie Clare, New Idea and Elle.

Are Media, through a spokesman, confirmed Tedmanson had vacated her role as editor, but would not be drawn on whether the position would be cut altogether. Instead, the publisher said it would soon begin recruitment for the “newly created role” of editorial director of The Australian Women’s Weekly and Women’s Weekly Food.

During the publishing industry’s heyday, the top job at The Australian Women’s Weekly was among the most influential in the business. It has been filled by a string of big names, including Ita Buttrose, perhaps better known for her controversial reign as chair of the ABC, along with Helen McCabe, who went on to found Future Women and is now a non-executive director at Claire Kimball’s The Squiz, and Deborah Thomas, who spent close to a decade in the top job before moving into corporate roles at ACP Magazines.

Are claims AWW has a monthly print readership of 1.3 million and a multi-platform audience of 2.8 million. Roy Morgan Research has the monthly print readership at 1.4 million in the year to June 2026 and a multi-platform audience of 1.64 million.

But the publisher clearly doesn’t like what it sees, with the Weekly now slipping to Australia’s second most-read paid magazine after Better Homes and Gardens. How else to explain all the change going on at 54 Park Street?

It was only in June the company confirmed it had made its marketing boss redundant as part of a round of job cuts that impacted up to 30 people.

That shoe dropped only a couple of months after the publisher announced that its chief executive, Jane Huxley, would also head for the door. Her replacement, the company announced in March, would be Are Media’s director of content, Sally Eagle. Tedmanson was contacted for comment.

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John Buckley is a CBD columnist for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.Connect via email.

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