Northern & Shell, publisher of OK! Magazine in the UK, has signed a multimillion-pound, 10-year deal with the Shanghai-based private media company Cinezoic Media to publish the magazine.
It will be published in China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Macau first as a monthly, starting from January 2004. OK! Magazine said it expected the title to go weekly within six months.
Martin Ellice, joint group managing director at Northern and Shell, said: "This expansion into China is part of the global strategy for OK! Magazine. Talks are already under way to launch the magazine in other markets around the world, including the US."
OK! and rival Hello! once dominated the celebrity magazine market in the UK with their PR-friendly features on soapstars and minor royalty. However, with the advent of Heat magazine, followed by a wave of wannabe titles feeding the public's desire for a more warts-and-all look at celebrities, both have seen their circulations plummet.
In the latest set of ABCs, OK! Magazine was down by almost 15% on the previous year with a figure of 489,882, while Hello! had a circulation of 347,461, a year-on-year fall of 32.9%.
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