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The year-on-year fall for Bliss magazine equates to a massive 45.3% drop.

Sugar magazine registered sales of 200,541 and has claimed the position as market leader for the first time in a year, only up 0.2% in the last six months, but enough to take the crown.

However, Sugar has dipped dramatically year on year, down 19.8%.

Emap sold Bliss to Panini in January 2007 after circulation figures dramatically fell. Panini will be hoping to stop the haemorrhaging sales, and the latest ABC marks the first time that Bliss has registered sales below 200,000.

This is in dramatic contrast to Bliss's previous circulation figures, and it led the market with an ABC of 277,165 this time last year, ahead of Sugar.

The figures show the instability of a notoriously difficult market that is down 24.3% year on year.

DC Thompson's Shout magazine, issued fortnightly, registered an 8.7% upsurge year on year, and Minijare's Kiss magazine grew 25.1% to 17,575 during the same period.

The rest of the market looks bleak, with sales of The National Magazine Company's Cosmo Girl down 7.1% period on period and down 23.8% year on year, registering a circulation of 131,956 copies.

Panini's other teen title, fortnightly magazine Mizz, registered a relatively minor 0.3% drop as a six-month average and a 0.8% drop year on year to 59,934 copies.

The BBC's It's Hot is down 13.8% compared with the end of June 2006 to 57,013, while sister magazine Top of the Pops is up year on year by 8.7% but down 10.1% as a six-month average to a 105,025 circulation.

Essential's TV Hits is down 13.5% period on period and dropped 25.6% year on year. It now has an ABC of 47,321, compared with its heyday of December 2004 when it registered 103,658 sales.

Panini will need to turn sales around if Bliss is to survive. Its February edition carried no covermounted gift in a significant departure for the title, and it is as yet unknown what impact this had.