Glamour proved to be the essential handbag filler once again in the women’s lifestyle/fashion sector, retaining the number one spot with a 23.1 per cent rise in sales.
Glamour reported an ABC of 537,474 and extended its lead over Cosmopolitan to 74,416 copies. Cosmo responded by boosting its sex coverage and reported sales of 463,058.
National Magazine Company and Cosmo managing director Duncan Edwards said: “Cosmo has been absolutely rock solid. We’ll continue to spend money and there will be tweaks in the design and flow, but essentially we have got a great business.”
Cosmo’s oldest rival, Marie Claire, managed to nudge up to 400,038 with the help of bulks, but lost its position as number three in the sector to Good Housekeeping, which rose 5.4 per cent period-on-period.
Company showed a 26.5 per cent increase to 330,373 as a result of its cut-price strategy and editorial mix, B saw a slight improvement with sales of 192,945, but has yet to break through the 200,000 barrier – unlike Vogue, which rose to 202,108.
A succession of diaries, notebooks, make-up bags and the arrival of new editor Louise Chunn resulted in better sales for InStyle, up 15.9 per cent year-on-year and a further 14.7 per cent period-on-period to 175,245.
Emap welcomed the results for Red (up 10.5 per cent) and Elle, despite losing the titles to Hachette Filipacchi. New Woman, which remained with Emap, is expected to receive a bigger marketing push in 2003 and around £2.5m in investment, including TV ads to promote it as a “fashion-friendly” fix.
Prima is also gearing up for extra pages and a more practical, populist approach next month in a bid to halt its 14.5 per cent decline. Family Circle, Essentials and Real also suffered a slide.
Elsewhere, Yours claimed its 27th consecutive period-on-period increase and Woman & Home recorded a year-on-year climb of 7.5 per cent.
Eve also managed to reverse its decline – along with a 32 per cent year-on-year reduction in bulks – and posted an ABC of 121,070. This was a result of last year’s revamp and cover-mounts including a “pashmina” scarf.
By Ruth Addicott
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