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Australia’s lifestyle media has matured into a sharp, self-assured category of its own. The best titles pair street-level knowledge with genuine editorial authority, whether that means a Broadsheet food critic setting the agenda for a Friday night out, a Pedestrian team breaking youth-culture stories to a million-plus readers, or a Monster Children editor profiling a surfer most magazines have never heard of. This is our pick of the Australian lifestyle blogs and websites worth following.
How we ranked these: our editors assessed each publisher on editorial authority, publishing consistency, originality of coverage, and cultural relevance to an Australian audience. Every title on the main list is actively publishing. Titles that have wound down are noted further down the page. Man of Many appears as a bonus entry at the end, with the disclosure that we publish this list.
1. Broadsheet
Broadsheet is the most consistent cultural barometer Australia has produced in the last two decades. It started in Melbourne as a weekly email covering food, drink and design and it now operates full city desks in Melbourne, Sydney, Adelaide, Perth and Brisbane, plus a London edition. Its reviews are unhurried, its photography is strong, and its openings calendar sets the pace for every other publisher on this list. If you read one lifestyle site to figure out where to eat this weekend, make it this one.
Founded: 2009
Based: Melbourne, Sydney, Adelaide, Perth, Brisbane, London
Covers: food, drink, design, fashion, travel, culture
Standout for: new restaurant and bar openings, long-form food journalism
Owned by: Broadsheet Media (founder Nick Shelton)
2. Pedestrian TV
Pedestrian TV is the title that has done the most to shape the voice of young Australia online. It covers pop culture, politics, reality TV, social trends and news with a fast, confident tone, and it consistently gets to the stories that matter to under-35 readers first. The site sits inside Pedestrian Group, the youth publisher Nine Entertainment acquired in 2015, which gives it both reach and a serious content operation behind the scenes.
Founded: 2005
Based: Sydney
Covers: pop culture, entertainment, news, social issues, humour
Standout for: youth-culture agenda setting, reality TV and music coverage
Owned by: Pedestrian Group / Nine Entertainment
3. The Urban List
The Urban List is the city-guide network that put Brisbane on the lifestyle-media map and then scaled across Australia and into New Zealand. Editors cover the best places to eat, drink, stay and be entertained in each city, with strong service-journalism DNA: where to take a date, what’s opening this month, what to do with out-of-town visitors. If you want a planner, not a think piece, this is where to go.
Founded: 2011
Based: Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne, Perth, Auckland
Covers: food and drink, travel, events, shopping, home
Standout for: actionable city guides and weekend planning
Owned by: The Urban List (independent)
4. Concrete Playground
Concrete Playground has been mapping the arts, music, food and events scene in Australia and New Zealand since 2009. It is a classic culture-and-events publisher, with strong coverage of live music, festivals, film and theatre alongside restaurant and bar reviews. Vinyl Group, the ASX-listed music company, acquired it in early 2025, giving the title deeper publishing support while keeping its independent editorial voice.
Founded: 2009
Based: Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Auckland, Wellington
Covers: arts, live music, culture, food and drink, travel
Standout for: arts and festivals coverage, city events calendars
Owned by: Vinyl Group (ASX:VNL) since 2025
5. Time Out Australia
Time Out is the global city-guide brand, and its Australian editions punch above their weight. The Sydney and Melbourne teams run tight restaurant and bar reviews, best-of lists and cultural features that trade on the same editorial standards you get from Time Out London or New York. When Time Out ranks a bar in its top ten, the industry pays attention.
Founded: 1968 (Time Out globally); Australian editions launched later
Based: Sydney, Melbourne (global HQ London)
Covers: restaurants, bars, culture, travel, things to do
Standout for: authoritative best-of rankings for venues and events
Owned by: Time Out Group plc
6. Monster Children
Monster Children is the counter-culture title that grew out of Sydney’s skate, surf and art scenes. It still prints a beautiful quarterly magazine, and its website runs long profiles, photo essays and interviews that sit closer to Juxtapoz or Thrasher than to mainstream lifestyle media. If you care about the creative people behind the culture as much as the output, this is the best read in the country.
Founded: 2003
Based: Sydney and Los Angeles
Covers: art, photography, skate, surf, music, film
Standout for: long-form profiles, photography and print-quality journalism
Owned by: Monster Children Group (independent)
7. Junkee
Junkee has been the sharper, louder voice of young Australia online since 2013. It built its audience on music, politics, social issues and pop culture, and relaunched in 2024 with a bolder visual identity. Its sibling sites Punkee (entertainment) and AWOL (travel) round out the Junkee Media network, now owned by RACAT Group. If Pedestrian TV is the mainstream youth mast, Junkee is the one that keeps it honest.
Founded: 2013 (by Sound Alliance, now Junkee Media)
Based: Sydney
Covers: music, pop culture, politics, social issues, entertainment
Standout for: youth-politics coverage and music journalism
Owned by: RACAT Group (since 2021)
8. Sitchu
Sitchu is a newer player that has carved out a niche as the go-to suburb-level guide. Originally a Sydney-only suburb tracker, the site now covers Melbourne, Brisbane and other cities with city-guide content, property and lifestyle features. Strong visual design and genuinely local knowledge make it a useful complement to the bigger publishers on this list.
Founded: 2016
Based: Sydney (multi-city coverage)
Covers: food, lifestyle, property, wellness, travel, suburb guides
Standout for: hyper-local suburb guides
Owned by: Sitchu (independent)
Other Worthy Mentions
Two more Australian titles that sit just outside the main ranking above, worth a follow if you’re interested in these specific angles.
- The Design Files – Founded in Melbourne in 2008 by Lucy Feagins. Australia’s most respected design and interiors publication, covering real homes, architecture, art and makers. Also produces a print magazine.
- Mamamia – Founded 2007 by Mia Freedman. Australia’s biggest women’s lifestyle and opinion publisher, with more than 6.5 million monthly readers and the largest women’s podcast network in the world. Not a men’s lifestyle site, but the biggest player in the Australian lifestyle category overall.
Closed or Dormant
Vice Australia. Vice’s Australian operation wound back to a skeleton team in July 2024 as part of a global restructure, with APAC operations consolidated into Singapore and its local creative agency Virtue closed. Vice.com continues to publish globally, but the dedicated Australian editorial desk no longer operates at the scale it did through the 2010s. We’ve left it here for context given its historical influence on Australian youth media.
Bonus: Man of Many
Full disclosure: we publish this list, so we’ve put ourselves at the end rather than ranking ourselves against the publishers above. Man of Many is Australia’s largest independent men’s lifestyle publisher, covering culture, tech, fashion, cars, watches and food for a monthly audience of several million readers. If you’re reading this, you already know the drill.
Founded: 2012
Based: Sydney
Covers: culture, tech, fashion, cars, watches, food and drink, travel
Standout for: long-form features, product reviews, Australian men’s lifestyle coverage
Owned by: Man of Many Pty Ltd (independent)
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Australian Lifestyle Blogs FAQs
A lifestyle blog or website is a publication that covers everyday life, interests and culture for a target audience, typically spanning food, travel, entertainment, fashion and design. The best ones combine original reporting, strong photography and a consistent editorial voice.
The leading Australian lifestyle websites by editorial authority and audience size are Broadsheet, Pedestrian TV, The Urban List and Concrete Playground, with Time Out Australia, Monster Children, Junkee and Sitchu also widely read. The Design Files and Mamamia are worth following in adjacent categories.
A mix. Broadsheet, The Urban List, Monster Children, Sitchu and The Design Files are independently owned. Pedestrian TV sits inside Pedestrian Group (Nine Entertainment), Concrete Playground was acquired by Vinyl Group in 2025, Junkee is owned by RACAT Group, and Time Out Australia is part of Time Out Group plc.
Vice Media wound back its Australian operations in July 2024 as part of a global restructure, consolidating APAC into Singapore and closing its local Virtue creative agency. Vice.com still publishes globally, but its Australian editorial desk is no longer active at its previous scale.
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