Celebrity weeklies lose their lustre

The celebrity weeklies market is showing signs of strain with EMAP’s Closer and Heat taking a beating from the mid-market OK! Magazine. OK! has overtaken the two titles with a whopping 22.7% increase in circulation in the July to December 2007 ABCs.

The title has gone up 9.5% year-on-year to a circulation of 683,451 copies per week, compared to the 548,595 copies per week circulated by Closer and 533,034 of Heat. Both magazines, now part of the Bauer Consumer Media, suffer slides in circulations for the period and year-on-year.

Glossy weekly Grazia, however, continued to grow with a 3.2% increase in the period and 8% year-on-year circulation to 227,083 copies.

The monthly women’s sector has also little to cheer about. The leading magazine Glamour reports only a 1% increase in the period and 6.5% year-on-year decline to 592,575 copies. The National Magazine Company’s Good Housekeeping has overtaken sister title Cosmopolitan, by 3,765 copies. IPC Media’s Marie Claire, Bauer’s Yours and NatMags’ Company all reported losses in circulations.

Men’s magazines continue to decline with FHM, Nuts, Zoo and Loaded all reporting huge decline in year-on-year circulation. Cond» Nast-owned GQ is one of the few titles to report increases both in the period and year-on-year.

The free weekly Shortlist has reported a debut ABC of 462,731 copies – short of its 500,000 copies target.

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