ABC Jan-Jun 2003: Gossip Titles Shaken By New Launches
The figures listed in NewsLine’s ABC reports are those reported by the Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC) as of Thursday 14 August 2003. Late submissions and changes may be made after this date, and will thereafter be amended in MediaTel’s Press database. For full notes on how NewsLine’s reports are compiled please see Important Notes: ABC January – June 2003.
The latest ABC results for the six months ending in June 2003 confirmed Heat‘s position as the biggest climber in the celebrity and gossip magazine market, with an 18.1% year on year increase in circulation.
The Emap-owned magazine’s irreverent approach to the lives of the rich and famous continues to proving popular with twenty-something women and its success has inspired a number of publishers to launch similar celebrity focussed titles.
Meanwhile, Emap stablemate, Closer, made a strong ABC debut with a circulation of 334,542. Media commentators who suggested the new title would erode Heat’s core readership will be eating their words as the figures reveal it has successfully positioned itself as Heat‘s older sister.
Chic Magazines’ recently launched New!, which undercut existing celebrity titles with a coverprice of just 60p following its launch earlier this year (see Express Enters Celebrity Market), also reported for this first time, with an initial circulation of 339,035.
However, the new magazines on the block appear to have eroded the circulation of some of the sector’s more established titles and Hello, which has long been regarded as the founder of the celebrity magazine scene, saw a sharp year on year decline in circulation to 347,461.
Hello’s biggest rival on the newsstands, OK!, also experienced a significant year on year decline in circulation to 489,882, suggesting that its slick, styled approach to celebrity coverage is not as popular as Heat‘s less airbrushed take on the celebrity scene.
The latest figures also reinforced Now‘s position at the top of celebrity magazine market, with its mix of high-profile interviews, gossip and real world features helping it to see circulation increase to 590,544.
There was also good news for soap titles, with IPC’s Soaplife seeing a solid 12% year on year increase in circulation and Hachette Filipacchi’s All About Soap registering a 1.8% rise during the same period.
In the TV listings sector, Sky The Magazine, which is distributed free to Sky satellite subscribers, maintained its position the most popular title with a year on year increase to over 6.1 million.
There was also solid growth at IPC’s What’s On TV, which saw circulation increase year on year during the first half of 2003 to 1,689,621, up from 1,666,475 in the same period the previous year.
Meanwhile, BBC Worldwide’s veteran Radio Times continued to build its circulation, with a slight year on year increase to 1,161,019. Earlier this year the magazine appointed a new brand communications manager to attract new readers and oversee the marketing of its brand extensions (see Radio Times Gets New Brand Communications Manager).
Elsewhere, there were mixed results for H Bauer, which saw its TV Quick magazine decline by 10.4% year on year. However, the publisher’s TV Choice title rose year on year to 967,807.
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