01/11/2023

Australia Reads has announced that it is retiring the annual Australian Reading Hour.

Since the program began in 2012, Australian Reading Hour has engaged over a million Australians in reading, featured over 300 annual events, attracted mainstream media coverage around the joys and benefits of reading, and made tens of thousands of books available to young people at affordable prices.

After more than a decade of celebrating Australian Reading Hour, Australia Reads decided it was time to take stock and evaluate the program’s effectiveness in growing reading engagement in Australia. 

The decision was informed by feedback from the sector that ‘a practical, unified, and year-round approach’ would be beneficial advocating for reading in Australia, and will allow the industry-backed organisation to dedicate more time and resources to:

• Advocating for investment in reading at a national level.
• Devising effective messages and campaigns to drive increased participation with reading in Australia.
• Providing research, resources, and tools for the industry to actively promote reading to their audiences and communities.

As one of the organisations delivering Australia Reads, we are immensely proud of what we’ve achieved together with Australian Reading Hour, and grateful for the range of partners, sponsors, authors, and readers who have so enthusiastically taken part. 

As we look ahead to the future, we invite you to join us in our work. Last month, we held VOLUME, a free, online national reading symposium to explore practical and collective solutions to building a stronger reading culture in Australia, and have shared key takeaways from the event. We also published the key findings of our Research Review, and will soon release the findings of our Live Literature Research Project.

You can stay up to date with the work of Australia Reads by signing up to the e-newsletter, checking out the website, or following on social media @AustraliaReads.