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Heat editor Mark Frith has issued a withering dismissal of rival celebrity launches by Richard Desmond.

Speaking at last week's PPA Magazines 2003 conference, Frith said there was a lot of "sameing" going on in the industry.

He claimed that New! - Desmond's 60p weekly that has a similar appearance to IPC's Now - was struggling to hit its sales target of 500,000. "Sales are a lot less than that," he said.

Frith said it was not the first time Desmond had launched a title with a resemblance to an existing one, using the example of Hot Stars - the OK! supplement that is similar in appearance to Heat.

"Hot Stars is very similar to Heat. There was nothing we could do legally. Passing off is very difficult to get through a court. It is a nightmare and most people don't want to go there," he said.

Frith said that Heat's sales had been unaffected by New!, but Now had lost some sales.

"The mistake that's been made by Desmond with New! and Hot Stars is that a few words and a lot of pictures with a red and white design makes you think Heat. It doesn't."

Frith also revealed that the biggest-selling issue of Heat had come last August, when an issue featuring Big Brother's Jade Goody on the cover sold 660,000 copies.