Heat magazine has shed more than a fifth of its sales in a year, the biggest faller in the women's weeklies sector with OK!, Hello! and Woman's Weekly the only titles to boost circulation.
Bauer Media's Heat had an average circulation of 326,677 in the first half of 2011, down 21.7% year on year and 11.7% down on the previous six months, according to the latest Audit Bureau of Circulations figures published on Thursday.
It was the biggest decline in the sector, which saw double-digit year-on-year circulation falls for four titles including IPC Media's Pick Me Up, down 18.1% – and 8.9% on the previous six months – to 261,588.
It was a mixed picture for Richard Desmond's Northern & Shell with OK! magazine overtaking Bauer's Closer to become the third biggest title in the sector.
OK! saw sales grow 4.9% period-on-period to 473,167, but was down year on year by 1.2%. Closer slipped back 12.7% year-on-year and 7.8% on the previous six months to 459,693.
Northern & Shell's New! held on to second place in the market despite suffering a decline of 10.7% year on year and 8.2% on the previous six months to 515,975.
Its Northern & Shell stablemate Star fell 8% year on year and 5.7% period on period to 405,688.
The circulations of both titles have been heavily supported by multi-packing, where they are bundled together with a sister title and sold at a cheaper rate.
New! had a full-rate sale in the UK and Ireland of 294,819, 57% of total circulation. Star's full-rate sale in the UK and Ireland was 162,914, just 40% of total circulation.
Hello!, along with OK! the only bright spot in the sector, climbed past Star with a 0.3% increase year on year and a 1.9% increase period on period to 413,311.
H Bauer's Take A Break once again took the number one spot in the women's weeklies sector. Take A Break's average sale of 803,555 was down 6.1% year on year and 3.6% period on period.
IPC's Chat was down 9% year on year and 5.6% period on period to 391,749. Its IPC stablemate Women's Weekly grew year-on-year sales by 0.4% to 339,993, a period-on-period decline of 1.2%.
The top 10 was rounded out by H Bauer's That's Life which shed 5.9% circulation year on year to 321,332, a 4.3% period-on-period fall.
IPC's Woman's Own suffered the largest period-on-period circulation decline of any title, down 15.7% to 245,868. This represented a 9.7% decline year on year.
Hubert Burda's Love It! fell 12.4% period on period and 8.4% year on year to 212,168.
The UK edition of the National Enquirer reported a year-on-year fall of 8.3% to 65,684, a 5.6% drop period on period.
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