N&S planning spoiler title to EMAP’s Closer
Northern & Shell (N&S) is understood to be planning a celebrity magazine called Wow! to rival EMAP’s recently launched Closer.
Northern & Shell (N&S) is understood to be planning a celebrity magazine called Wow! to rival EMAP’s recently launched Closer.
Wow! is expected to be available from the first quarter of next year and will be more mass-market than N&S’s existing celeb-led title OK!. OK!’s circulation has been floundering recently. According to the January to June 2002 Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC) figures, OK! sales dropped 11.7 per cent year on year to 575,307 copies a week.
EMAP launched Closer in September this year to target women aged between 20 to 60 years old. It was launched to build on the phenomenal success of its Heat magazine.
Closer also rivalled IPC Media’s celeb-driven weekly, Now, whose sales have increased by ten per cent year on year and 3.2 per cent period on period to 570,279 copies a week. Now was given a facelift earlier this year, supported by a four-week advertising campaign, to fight off competition from Closer, which closely follows Now’s format of celebrity photos mixed with real-life stories.
