OK! celebrity magazine to go weekly in ’96

Northern & Shell’s OK! magazine is to become a weekly from March next year.

The celebrity monthly is hiring advertising sales staff and journalists. An announcement will be made to ad agencies and the news trade this month.

N&S is understood to be concerned about reports that US celebrity title People is to launch in the UK next year. It wants OK! to become a weekly before this happens.

Industry sources say OK! is ready to go weekly immediately if People, or a rumoured launch from Gruner & Jahr, enter the market.

The magazine has been rejuvenated under editor in chief and former Woman editor Richard Barber. It increased its circulation by 167 per cent year-on-year in the January to June ABCs, to 200,017. The rise is partly because the magazine cut its price from 1.95 to 1.20 in May last year.

“The only thing holding us back is the frequency,” says Barber. “I feel my hands are tied slightly because we can’t do anything that is news reactive. And a celebrity-led magazine has to be news-led. It will also put us in a healthy position against Hello!.”

Hello! posted an ABC of 452,103 in the last round of ABCs.