A disagreement has escalated between Hello! magazine and the publisher of OK Magazine, Northern & Shell (N&S), which has led to Hello! launching legal proceedings against its rival.
Northern & Shell circulated a letter a couple of weeks ago to advertisers and the trade press, which showed that OK has enjoyed a year-on-year increase of 50% in the six months to June, and was selling more copies that Hello! by early September. According to a spokesperson at Hello!, this mail shot grossly underestimated the figures for Hello!, and was wildly inaccurate data. Hello! magazine approached the publishing group, requesting that they retract the data and circulate an apology.
Jon Humphrey, advertising sales and development director at Hello!, commented: “We have received questions from a number of advertisers about our current circulation as a direct result of this activity. In essence, the figures that were distributed are inaccurate and do not reflect the status of Hello!‘s circulation. However, it is inevitable that some people will treat these figures seriously and that their confidence in Hello! could be diminished. As a result, we could not allow these figures to go unchallenged.”
According to Humphrey, the N&S failed to apologise or correct the error, and “in the absences of an agreement by Northern & Shell to do so, our lawyers have been instructed to commence proceedings against them.”
The ABC year on year comparisons for Jan-June 1998 show that OK‘s circulation increased by 50%, rising to 214,162. Hello! showed a much smaller increase of 1.65%, but its circulation was still well ahead of OK‘s at 506,027. Despite this, Stan Myerson, managing director at OK, claims: “We believe we sold significantly more copies than Hello! in September with our Mel B Wedding issue, with net sales of 750,000.”
Hello! Magazine: 0171 667 8700 Northern & Shell: 0171 308 5090
