Mixed news for G&J in first Here! sales figures

Here!, Gruner & Jahr’s new gossip magazine, sold 950,000 copies in its first week, according to a competitor’s audit.

G&J is keeping its sales figures secret, but it is understood that the first week, which was accompanied by a 1.3m launch advertising campaign and a reduced cover price, managed to sell 72 per cent of the print run of 1.3 million copies.

The second week sold close to 480,000, 45 per cent of the 1.1 million print run. That week’s figure was hampered by the decision of IPC to cut the price of Woman and Woman’s Own from 55p to 30p. The two titles return to 55p this week.

Estimates for the third week indicate that the title sold about 400,000 copies, from a print run of 950,000.

The sales figures are mixed news for G&J. It guaranteed advertisers average sales of 400,000 in the title’s first four months. However, G&J expected sales closer to 650,000, based on pre-launch test results.

The sales of the magazine are being closely tracked by other publishers because of the current activity in the sector.

IPC has a new gossip magazine awaiting board approval for launch, while EMAP is reported to be in talks with Time Inc about bringing People, the weekly US gossip title, to the UK under licence.

Holger Wyman, managing director of G&J, declined to confirm the sales figures of Here!’. “You can only really say how it’s doing after six weeks,” he says, “but it’s going OK. We are trying to establish a price level that is new to women’s weeklies, and that will take us some time.”