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That's Life!, which is published by H Bauer and targets a younger readership than its market-leading sister title Take A Break, declined by 11.7% year on year to 341,545 copies in the January - June 2010 period.

Much of the decline happened in the most recent period, circulation falling 9.8% from 378,551 in July - December 2009.

The magazine lost editor Jo Checkley in March after she was poached by Hubert Burda's Love It!, but in April.

Hubert Burda appears so far to have got scant reward for poaching Checkley, although it's early days for the new regime, which was hit by a 24.9% drop from its 308,304 circulation during the first half of 2009.

Now on 231,617 copies, Love It! is down 18.3% period on period and has dropped below H Bauer's Bella.

Both magazines were 100% actively purchased during the period with all copies at basic cover price of 68p.

It is also worth noting that Hubert Burda took radical action by removing all copies sold for above 50% of basic cover price, but less than full cover price, over the year – it sold 69,931 in this category a year ago. The publisher also said it was set to back Love It! with a significant marketing spend in the autumn.

Rob Lynam, press director at MEC, observed it was a poor performance by the real-life sector, which has been losing readers in recent years.

He said: "It's a market that you might perhaps argue has too much capacity and is overserved. It has such a wide range of choice."

"I would suspect in five years there won't be as many titles in that market. Unless there is an overhaul editorially, I would expect the trend to still be declining, although because we have an ageing population, perhaps over time there is a greater opportunity in that market."

Lynam said there were alternative ways advertisers could reach older, downmarket women, such as through celebrity magazines and tabloid newspaper supplements, such as the News of the World's Fabulous magazine.

The downturn in the sector was not confined to the above magazines, with even Take A Break taking a minor hit, despite having conducted its regular New Year advertising burst.

Its circulation fell 7% year on year to 855,372. However, it was 100% actively purchased and all copies were sold at the basic cover price, which finished the period at 80p.

Chat, the distant second in the real-life market that is owned by publishing giant IPC, had a relatively good ABC result, with just a 1% fall year on year to 430,674 copies.

IPC's Pick Me Up, which has recently been tweaked to appeal not just to women in their late 20s, but also to a slightly older demographic, dropped 1.2% to 319,305 copies.

The lower-priced end of the market saw strong rises, with Natmag's Real People up 11.5% year on year to 225,145 and Hubert Burda's Full House up 29.7% to 175,869.

Full House cut its cover price from 67p to 50p in April 2009.

Real People was multi-packed for 20 issues during the current period, alternatively with classic women's weekly Best and celebrity weekly Reveal and, at times, with both. The same strategy was used in the first half of 2009.

Drew Kirkland, group publishing director for weeklies at Natmag, attributed Real People's positive results to editor Samm Taylor, who he said had "given the magazine a USP" by featuring real people rather than models on the cover.

He said magazine sales had benefitted from its exposure on BBC One earlier this year in a documentary prominently featuring Taylor, and the rise "was not a temporary blip".

In traditional weeklies, IPC's venerable Woman's Weekly, which celebrates its centenary next year, rose 1% year on year to 338,577 copies.

The publisher's Woman and Woman's Own, which target slightly younger readers, were down, the former by 3.9% to 318,301 and the latter, 11.4% to 272,376.

Woman's Own spent four months of the current period without a permanent editor, after Karen Livermore moved to edit Woman in January.