The ABCs are set to show another all-round successful year for the growing celebrity market, but Emap is thought to be particularly pleased with its new launch Closer, which competes head to head with IPC Media's market leader Now.
The success of the celebrity market has created a sea change in the magazine market as women abandon older and more traditional magazines, such as Woman, in favour of Now, Closer and OK!.
Last time, Now reported a 10.5% increase in period-on-period circulation to 630,212, ahead of Emap's Heat, which rose by 15.8% over the period to 554,644, while Northern & Shell's OK! saw its circulation rise by 10% to 632,791.
Louise Matthews, publisher of Closer and stablemate Heat at Emap, said that the market has been redefined by the likes of Closer, which she described as the "first tabloid-style glossy weekly for women".
"The new figures are a great boost and show that we have successfully tapped into a market that many believed did not exist," she said.
Lads mags are also expected to do well in the latest set of six-monthly figures, with rises forecast for Emap's FHM, IPC's Loaded and Dennis Publishing's Maxim.
Closer was launched last September and was backed by a multimillion-pound push with an advertising campaign created by BMP DBB.
The weekly women's title combines celebrity news with real-life human interest stories.
Earlier this year, Nielsen Media Research estimated magazine publishers had come out on top after spending around £10m promoting six celebrity magazines in the last half of the year. Publishers were rewarded with across-the-board circulation increases.
Thursday's ABC will be Closer's first -- with circulation figures from early in the year giving it around 270,000 copies a week, it is believed to have added around 30,000 more.
It has been helped by a price-cutting campaign earlier this year when Emap cut its cover price to 50p to hit the launch of Northern & Shell's celebrity title New!.
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