Gossip Magazines Boom As Ad Revenue Rises

The success of Emap’s Heat magazine in the celebrity/gossip sector shows no signs of slowing, with the latest ABC figures for the six months to December revealing that the title saw circulation increase by 56.1% year on year to 554,644 (see ABC Jul-Dec 2002: Celebrity/Gossip Titles Continue To Boom). Figures from Nielsen Media Research also bring good news to the title, with display ad revenue increasing by 21.1% during the second half of 2002 to £6.1 million.

However, Heat‘s performance was somewhat overshadowed by IPC’s Soaplife magazine, which offset a 2.7% year on year decline in circulation, with an impressive 107.8% increase in ad revenue to £171,146. Hachette Filipacchi’s All About Soap also countered a 9.1% decrease in circulation with a 105.5% improvement in ad revenue, which rose to £212,177, up from £103,239 in the same period the previous year.

Sector heavy-weights OK! And Hello! continued to dominate their rivals in terms of ad revenue. The former matched a 3.8% increase in circulation with a 6.3% rise in ad revenue and the latter built on a 30% year on year improvement in circulation with a 21.6% hike in ad revenue to an impressive £21 million.

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