[4] As of February 2019[update], The Weekly has overtaken Better Homes and Gardens again, coming out on top as Australia's most read magazine.

The first editor was George Warnecke and the initial dummy was laid out by William Edwin Pidgeon who went on to do many famous covers over the next 25 years.

Wanting it to appeal to a mass audience, Warnecke hoped The Weekly would be a sign that Australia finally was coming out of the Depression.

[9] In the coming decades, The Weekly became Australia's foremost publisher of light fiction, mostly from England but also Australian, and though its readership was mostly women, many men were avid readers.

Australian authors who were well supported include Margot Neville, Mary Gilmore, Lennie Lower, Ross Campbell, Frank Dalby Davison and Henrietta Drake-Brockman.

[10] The cartoon strip Mandrake the Magician was a longtime competitor to The Phantom in rival magazine The Australian Woman's Mirror.

The silver foil cover featured Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman with an exclusive interview about their upcoming film, 'Australia'.

[16][1] The overall popularity of the magazine between the 1930s–1980s meant that articles and advertisements published in it were widely read across Australia, not only by women, but men as well.

[17] The magazine's power to influence and shape culture across the nation intersected with the rise of various women's and parenting issues.

Editors-in-chief of The Weekly over the years have included George Warnecke (1933–1939),[21] Alice Mabel Jackson (1939–1950),[22] Esmé (Ezzie) Fenston (1950–1972),[23] Dorothy Drain (1972–1975), Ita Buttrose (1975–76),[24] Jennifer Rowe (1987–1992),[25] Nene King, Dawn Swain (1994–2000), Deborah Thomas (1999–2015), Julia Zaetta (2005–06), Robyn Foyster (2007–2009),[26] Helen McCabe (2009–2016),[27] Kim Wilson (2016–17), Juliet Rieden (who was acting Editor-in-Chief in 2016 and 2017 and then Editor before moving to Editor-at-Large from 2018) and Nicole Byers (2017–2023) and Sophie Tedmanson was appointed as the new Editor in October 2023.

From 1965, it continued to be on the same site of the Australian Consolidated Press (ACP) building (corner of Park and Castlereagh Streets) in Sydney.

[33] The Test Kitchen had a team of 16 people in 2006, comprising chefs, home economists, food editors and support staff.