OK! saw its circulation rise by 116,934 copies in the last six months as it hit 649,777. Year-on-year OK! was up 22.7% allowing it to displace IPC Media's Now as the market leader.
The circulation leap allowed OK!, which last year launched in the US, to leapfrog past Emap's Closer. Closer had another good period, up 7.1% to 578,337 from last time's 540,044, but that that single-figure rise leaves it more than 70,000 copies adrift of OK!.
There was disappointment for IPC in the July-December ABC figures as its celebrity title Now, which once led the sector, fell 2.4% to 577,818, putting it in third place in the sector behind rivals OK! and Closer.
Emap's Heat was up again rising 2.6% putting it behind sister title Closer for the first time. In the July to December period, Heat rose to 575,267, modestly up from June's 560,438.
Rival Hello! on the other hand performed poorly. It was down by 0.5% to 390,622 and left for dust by OK!
Desmond's Northern & Shell had a clean sweep in the celebrity market as his New and Star titles also did very well.
Star was the next highest riser in the sector, jumping 17.1% to 213,594 in the last six months up from its last ABC in June of 182,393.
New, Northern & Shell's third celebrity weekly, put in the sector's third-best performance as Desmond's three celebrity titles all seemed to benefit from cross promotional in his Express Newspaper titles.
New was up 14.2%, another major leap in the sector, taking it to 426,161 up from 373,039 last time.
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