Cosmopolitan has rocketed its total average circulation up by 60 per cent year-on-year, smashing the overall trend of decline for monthly women’s magazines, the latest ABC figures show.
It was helped by a price cut to £1 and 100,000 extra free copies.
It also recorded the second highest total circulation of paid-for titles in the women’s fashion/lifestyle sector, reaching 413,155 copies, behind Good Housekeeping at 444,941 copies which also saw growth of 10 per cent year-on-year.
The highest circulation was set by free title the John Lewis Edition at 476,180 copies, with Asos.com – also a free title linked to a retail chain – following behind at 453,325 copies.
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Red, Elle UK, Women’s Health, Harper’s Bazaar and Tatler were the only other paid-for titles to record year-on-year growth.
The biggest decline was seen by Look magazine, which dropped 30 per cent compared with the same period last year to 91,902 copies.
Glamour magazine fell by 19 per cent to 300,063 copies while Grazia and Marie Claire both recorded a year-on-year falls of more than 11 per cent.
UK magazine sales for first half of 2016 (source ABC)
Combined print/digital edition circulation, percentage year on year change and percentage paid-for
| Title | Total ciculation | YoY% change | % print circulation paid-for |
| John Lewis Edition | 476,180 | -2.7 | Free |
| ASOS.com | 453,325 | -2.7 | Free |
| Good Housekeeping | 444,941 | 10.1 | 85.9 |
| Cosmopolitan | 413,155 | 59.9 | 75.1 |
| Stylist | 404,408 | 0.3 | Free |
| Woman & Home | 315,582 | -4.5 | 97.9 |
| Glamour | 300,063 | -18.9 | 94.9 |
| Prima | 258,214 | -2.2 | 90.4 |
| Yours | 257,349 | -5.6 | 92 |
| HELLO! | 253,253 | -3.1 | 94.7 |
| Vogue | 195,053 | -2.5 | 85.7 |
| Red | 193,872 | 2.7 | 81.9 |
| Elle (U.K.) | 171,874 | 4.7 | 63.3 |
| Marie Claire | 165,362 | -11.1 | 85.4 |
| Women’s Health | 128,253 | 2.8 | 85.3 |
| Grazia | 127,109 | -11.6 | 93.6 |
| Instyle UK | 123,076 | -18 | 68.5 |
| Harpers Bazaar | 110,710 | 4.4 | 48.1 |
| Candis | 105,796 | -13.2 | 99.4 |
| Look | 91,902 | -30.3 | 88.9 |
| Tatler | 84,515 | 0.2 | 58.8 |
| Vanity Fair | 80,083 | -9 | 71 |
| Essentials | 79,246 | -23.9 | 99.9 |
| HELLO! Fashion Monthly | 66,143 | -27.4 | 99.9 |
| WM The Womans Magazine | 21,176 | 8.3 | Free |
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