Year on year, the picture was much worse for Sugar as it fell 16.6%, to 321,258 copies.
The success of the burgeoning teenage entertainment magazine market, which includes market leader Top of the Pops and newcomers Sneak and It's Hot, ate into the traditionally strong teenage girls magazine market.
Period on period, circulation across the teenage entertainment category was up 40.1%, while teenage girls titles were down 3.7%.
Hachette's Sugar is still streets ahead of its closest rival, Bliss, published by Emap, which increased its period-on-period circulation by 3.9% to 260,102 copies.
The big success story of the six-month period, ending December 2002, is Emap's J-17 magazine. Once a dominant force in the market, the title has been through name changes, frequency changes and changes in editorial staff, with its circulation continuing to fall. However, it has managed to turn its circulation figures around, with an increase of 9.3% period on period, up to 143,308 copies, according to the Audit Bureau of Circulation. However, year on year, the figure was still down, with a 20.5% fall.
Cosmo Girl, the fourth-biggest title in the category, had a bad period, with sales falling by 18.9% to 142,073 from its debut figure of 175,237 for the six months ending June 2002. The magazine is The National Magazine Company's foray into the teenage girls' market.
Both IPC Media's Mizz and Shout, published by DC Thomson, suffered falls. Shout was particularly hard hit, with a 16.7% period-on-period decline to 101,010; Mizz was down by 7.6% to 129,654.
In the teenage entertainment magazine category, newcomers It's Hot, published by BBC Magazines, and Sneak, Emap's teenage version of Heat, both achieved strong debuts. It's Hot came in with a circulation of 104,015 copies, while Sneak debuted at 86,535.
The sector was also shaken by the increase of Hachette's TV Hits' circulation. The title was recently merged with CD:UK and saw its circulation leapfrog it into the number two position, pushing Smash Hits back to number three. TV Hits now has an ABC of 153,307, an increase of 7% period on period, compared with Smash Hits' 145,174, a figure that stayed steady from last period, but showed a year-on-year decline of 10.8%.
Top of the Pops still rules the roost with its 244,241 average net circulation a issue up by 3.9% on the previous period.
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