Overall, the paid-for sector was up 7.4% year on year to 658,746 copies, thanks to the launch of Jamie Magazine, which posted a respectable debut ABC of 75,369.
BBC titles suffered the biggest percentage drops. Despite a 10.2% period-on-period drop, BBC Good Food remained the paid-for market leader, with a circulation of 323,171. Easy Cook, the only bi-monthly in the group, suffered the most serious loss, down 17.6% period on period and 10.4% year on year.
Nicholas Brett, BBC Magazines deputy managing director, said the Good Food brand was holding up well in the market, thanks in part to a strong showing on the web.
He said: "Of our website businesses, the Good Food site, which receives 1.2 million hits, is probably the most successful of all."
Sales of paid-for titles in the sector were not bulked out by free copies: all five titles had active purchase rates of more than 90%. Mediaedge:cia head of national press trading Rob Lynam said this reflected the sector's "remarkable resistance" to competition from the supermarkets.
He said: "If you saw any other magazine category where five entrants came into the market, all putting out very well-produced free titles with a combined distribution of eight million copies, it would have a huge impact on the paid-for titles and probably close many of them. But that hasn't happened in the food sector."
