Private Eye, the Economist and others increase readership as Marie Claire, Heat and Grazia experience losses.

Women’s weekly and celebrity-focused magazines suffered a difficult first half of the year with sharp declines in sales, according to the latest industry figures.

Titles including Heat, Grazia, Now and Look all suffered heavy drops in sales between January and June compared to the same period last year, but news and current affairs magazines like Private Eye, the Economist, and the Spectator all enjoyed growth.

The latest ABC figures suggest readers are continuing to turn to news and current affairs titles as they look to digest Brexit preparations and the presidency of Donald Trump.

Private Eye achieved its biggest ever circulation in the second half of 2016, prompting Ian Hislop, who has edited Private Eye for 3o years, to tell the Guardian: “It is a golden time, but then Peter Cook, who used to own Private Eye, would say, ‘well the really golden time of satire was Berlin in the 30s and it didn’t go so well after that’.”

Private Eye’s circulation was 249,927 per issue in the first half of 2017, up 8.6% year-on-year and down just 0.1% from the record high at the end of last year.

However, women’s weeklies and celebrity titles are struggling as readers turn to online alternatives instead. Look suffered a 35% drop in circulation of its print and digital copies year-on-year, while Now was down 21%, Closer down 20%, Heat 17%, and Grazia 13%.

The more upmarket titles also suffered, with Marie Claire down 6% and Vanity Fair losing 10%. Good Housekeeping and Cosmopolitan were down by 1% and 2% respectively. Vogue, which is now being edited by Edward Enninful, a Ghanian-born former model, reported a 3% drop in circulation.

James Wildman, chief executive of Hearst UK, which publishes Cosmopolitan and Good Housekeeping, said: “We believe print magazines have a unique ability to reach, influence and engage consumers and I am delighted that Hearst leads the market in each of our monthly magazine competitive sectors.”

 
In news and current affairs the winners included Private Eye, the Economist and Prospect. Prospect experienced a 37% increase in its circulation to 44,545, while the Economist was up 5% in the UK to 248,196.

However, it is understood that the ABC slightly inflated the circulation figures for some of the titles – including the Economist and the Spectator – because subscribers were counted as buyers of a print and digital copy of the title.

Private Eye is the most-read news and current affairs title, with the Economist in second place on 248,196 and the Week, which reported a 1.1% drop in circulation, in third. Dennis, the Week’s publisher, has launched a children’s version of the tile called the Week Junior. The magazine recorded a circulation of 45,895 during the period.

James Tye, chief executive of Dennis, said: “The Week continues to dominate the current affairs agenda with its ever-increasing portfolio of brands. The Week Junior shows another significant increase highlighting the demand for quality content amongst the youngest members of our society. Its rise, almost all subscription-driven, is truly remarkable and encouraging.”

The publication with the highest circulation, excluding free magazines, was TV Choice. The magazine recorded a circulation of 1.2m, down 2.6% year-on-year. This was ahead of rivals What’s On TV and Radio Times, which had a circulation of 622,773.