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August 14, 2008

Magazine ABCs: Take a Break drops below a million

By Dominic Ponsford

Bauer’s real life title Take a Break retained its dominance of the women’s weeklies sector, but its sale dropped 3.6 per cent year on year to 981,504 in the magazine ABCs.

But editor John Dale will be disappointed to see his title drop below a million sales for the first time in more than a decade.

IPC’s Woman was the only women’s weekly in the entire sector to record a year-on-year rise. And it was only marginally up, 0.1 per cent year on year to 370,289.

Bella, published by H Bauer, has continued to shed sales at a high rate following a dramatic redesign in March last year which brought in more celebrity and fashion content.

In the second half of 2007 it dropped 29.9 per cent year on year. Editor Julia Davis, who took up the job in January, has stemmed the rate of decline a little – in the last period it dropped 22.6 per cent year on year to 191,547.

Total sales in the sector dropped by six per cent year-on-year.

Magazine ABCs for the second half of 2008

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Women’s weeklies

  • Take a Break – 981,504, down 3.6 per cent
  • Chat – 489,682, down 4.3 per cent
  • That’s Life – 433,921, down 2.2 per cent
  • Pick Me Up – 409,112, down 8.5 per cent
  • Woman – 370,289, up 0.1 per cent
  • Love it! – 372,247, down 7.1 per cent
  • Woman’s Weekly – 346,540, down 6.3 per cent
  • Woman’s Own – 339,138, down 1.6 per cent
  • Best – 301,437, down 11.5 per cent
  • Real People – 230,135, down 25.6 per cent
  • Bella – 191,547, down 22.6 per cent
  • My Weekly – 155,087, down 9.5 per cent
  • Full House – 135,725, down 13.2 per cent
  • The Lady – 29,095, down 6.2 per cent

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