Hello! grabs top slot for glossy mags

Hello! has become the UK’s best-selling upmarket women’s magazine in the latest Audit Bureau of Circulations figures.

Hello! achieved a circulation of 494,803 in the July-December ABCs. This is its highest ever sales figure and took the magazine above the long-time leader of the glossy magazine market, Good Housekeeping.

Good Housekeeping fell 5.8 per cent year on year to 488,243, while Hello! rose by 3.8 per cent.

Agency buyers believe Hello! prospered once other magazines began to raise their prices as a result of increasing paper costs. “Generally, the magazine market has been flat,” says Helena Hudson, assistant media director at Optimedia on the L’Oréal account.

“Cover prices and competition from newspaper review sections has taken its toll,” she adds. “But Hello! is a different kind of read and while it is an expensive weekly, it’s cheaper than the monthlies.”