LONDON (Brand Republic) – The latest ABC figures published on Friday show a tough ride for the girl’s market and more losses for women’s magazines, but the success story for celebrity gossip magazines continues to run and run.
Sales for the Emap-owned Heat were the runaway winner, up by 137.6%, with recent sales of issues as high as 200,000. OK gained 28.8% in the period, giving it a lead over Hello! of 80,000 copies.
In the lad’s mag market, Emap Elan’s FHM, IPC Ignite!’s Loaded and Dennis-owned Maxim have consolidated their position as market leaders with sales of FHM up by 2% to 716,679, Loaded down 5.4% to 351,353 and Maxim up by 4.2% to 328,463.
However, The National Magazine Company’s Esquire was down a massive 39% to 61,271 and IPC Ignite!’s Later dropped 22.4% to 70,267, while Emap Elan’s Sky and Arena titles were poor performers with drops of 35.2% to 65,080 and 21.3% to 37,080 respectively.
Market leader Sugar suffered a 1.9% year-on-year drop in figures in the tweenie/teen market, while Live & Kicking suffered a dramatic 29.8% downturn, which has been attributed to the decline in audience for the Saturday morning TV show to which it is linked.
Nat Mags was the overall winner in the women’s glossy magazine market. Sales for Cosmopolitan, Company, She and Good Housekeeping were all up -- Company by 7.6% and Cosmopolitan has extended its lead over Marie Claire as the latter slipped by 11%.