By Alyson Fixter and Caitlin Pike
True-life launch Pick Me Up has hit a circulation of above half a
million just seven months after launch, leading publisher IPC to claim
the biggest debut ABC for a women’s weekly in a decade.
The title has been the most successful of the season’s crop of new
launches, and has brought in at least 300,000 new readers to the
true-life market.
But all its competitors, both straight
true-life titles like market leaders Take A Break and IPC stablemate
Chat, and more traditional women’s weeklies like Best, Bella and Woman,
have lost readers in the past six months, with Chat losing 25,000
readers in the period and Bauer’s Take A Break losing 21,225.
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They also lost readers or remained static year-on-year.
Pick
Me Up editor June Smith- Sheppard, who was until recently editing both
Pick Me Up and Chat, denied that Pick Me Up had cannibalised readers
from the other weeklies, blaming German publisher Burda’s UK launch,
Full House, which failed to post an ABC.
She said: “The Burda
launch knocked the market about. When a new title launches which is
similar to what is on offer then it cannibalises the market.
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“I
watched the figures very very closely before we launched Pick Me Up and
I saw there was organic growth in the market, Chat recorded five, six,
seven consecutive increases in sales.
“Pick Me Up is visually very different, it’s much brighter and the headlines and pictures work hard together.
“I’m very proud of the loyal readers whose trust we’ve gained so fast.”
John
Dale, editor of Take A Break, said: “We are down 0.7 per cent year on
year, a total of 8,076 copies, well within our usual seasonal variation.
“Although we were the prime target, we were not affected by either Pick Me Up or Full House in any measurable way.
“Both poached our staff but we responded by producing a better magazine than ever.
“Our
competitors pursue the only strategy they can imagine, that of banging
their heads against a brick wall. The brick wall is winning.”
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