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August 18, 2005updated 22 Nov 2022 4:31pm

Bridget Jones’s comeback puts up circulation

By Press Gazette

The return of Bridget Jones to The Independent put on 12,000 copies in its first week – boosting sales by about five per cent.

And giving away a paperback book of the first 40 Bridget Jones columns added an extra 40,000 sales on that day.

Editor
Simon Kelner lured Helen Fielding back to The Independent to revive her
old column with what is understood to be a high six-figure deal.

Fielding launched Bridget Jones at The Independent in 1995 before being poached by The Daily Telegraph in 1997.

Kelner
said: “We are very happy with the sales so far. The thing about Bridget
Jones is it’s very much a slow burning thing. People get drawn in as
they get to know the stories and the characters.”

The sales boost could not have come at a better time for The Independent.

Last
month saw its headline sale drop year-on-year for the first time since
the launch of its tabloid version, falling 2.47 per cent to 255,603.

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