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IFG acquired Fortean Times, along with downmarket men's title Bizarre and adult comic Viz, for £6.4m in May 2001. At the time, Bizarre's circulation was in free-fall, down from a high of 120,000 to 97,036 in June 2002, while Fortean Times had a circulation of 27,000 and Viz was at 176,207.

IFG commercial director Bruce Sandell's goal for Fortean Times is to hit a circulation of 40,000. It has just posted an ABC of 30,072 for the July to December 2002 period, up 11% year on year, an increase of 3.9% on last period.

The magazine's relaunch, which comes in its 30th year of publication, will see it go up in size by 16 pages and aim to target the more "academic" audience that Sandell believes reads it.

"Long term, we feel we can generate sales among our core audience, which is quite academic. The perception is that it's a downmarket title, but it's not. We see it as closer to New Scientist and we do a lot of subscription promotions with that title," Sandell said.

IFG appears to have halted the circulation decline at Bizarre, as the magazine posted a period-on-period increase of 8.8% to 105,620. He likens its success and strategy to that of Emap's FHM, which was the success story of this year's ABC with an increase of 8%.

Sandell said: "Bizarre is 100% actively purchased. We've got a unique editorial concept -- like Emap's FHM, it's a good editorial product."

IFG has just appointed a new editor in Ben Raworth, part of the team that relaunched FHM in the 90s under the editorship of Mike Soutar, now editorial director at IPC Media.

The magazine will be using newsstand promotions, including a supplement called Bizarre's backstreet beauties -- another similarity with Emap's FHM, which has been running its own beauty competition called "High Street Honeys". The second promotion will be a gift of "porn trump cards", which Sandell describes as "funny, rather than disgusting".

The publisher's cult adult comic Viz saw its circulation fall 15.7% year on year, but this is due to the fact that its frequency has been increased to 10 times a year from six.

IFG editor-in-chief James Brown said: "Viz is actually selling 40% more copies a year and our retail sales value has increased by over 40%, so we would not let the small matter of an ABC decrease disappoint us."

The magazine celebrates its 25th anniversary next year, and according to Sandell the publisher is concentrating on "getting the magazine right" ahead of this event.

The publisher also has ambitious plans for its more mainstream title, Jack, which launched last year.

When it reports its debut ABC next period, Sandell wants it to come in above Esquire, which has a circulation of 68,075. Long term, the goal is to be market leader ahead of GQ, which posted an ABC of 123,502.

The magazine will use retail promotions and is currently in talks with broadsheets about sampling to drive sales for the current ABC reporting period.

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