Vogue, GQ, Country Living and a host of high-quality magazines experienced a surprise increase in the latest half-yearly circulation figures, showing the strength of upmarket titles in the face of the credit crunch.

The figures demonstrate that consumers are reverting to traditional glossies, helping to revive a monthly format that many considered doomed — chasing luxury — as most purses and wallets tighten.

Losers in the latest set of audit figures were the celebrity and men's weeklies — titles such as Heat and Zoo, on which the former Emap — now owned by H. Bauer — built its success for a decade.

The best performer among the big magazine groups was Hearst's NatMags, whose titles gained nearly 6 per cent. Its resurgence was drive by improvements at Cosmopolitan, the long-established women's glossy, up 4.4 per cent year on year to hit a three-year high with sales of 470,735.

Elsewhere in the NatMags stable, Country Living gained 3.7 per cent, selling a record 199,510, and Harper's Bazaar, a monthly aimed at sophisticated and wealthy women, boosted its sales by 3.1 per cent to 109,146.

Of the men's magazines, GQ, the upmarket title that Loaded once aimed to kill off, looks set to outlast its brash competitor. GQ, owned by Condé Nast, improved its sales by 1.7 per cent to 130,006, and Loaded, published by IPC, continued to collapse, losing nearly a sixth of its sales to 95,371. FHM lost 10 per cent at 280,391, far below the 700,000 peak it hit in 1999 at around the time journalists beamed an image of a naked Gail Porter on to the Houses of Parliament.

Jamie Jouning, the associate publisher of GQ, said: “The top tier of the population is still spending, and we are seeing strong results from luxury-goods companies. These companies are spending heavily on advertising, as they know there are a lot of people out there who still want their products.”

In contrast, the former Emap business, now Bauer Media after its acquisition by the German publisher, was the worst performer of the big publishers. Its overall sale, as measured by the Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC), crashed by 10.8 per cent.

Magazines promoting luxury products and lifestyle pursuits also did well, a sign that the people want to ape the lifestyle of the well-heeled, even if many can no longer afford to do so.IPC's Country Homes & Interiors was up by nearly 6 per cent and Golf Monthly rose 10 per cent. Gardens Illustrated, the BBC title, grew 13.5 per cent to 30,753 on the year, and Gardeners' World remained the leading hobby title with a sale virtually unchanged at 303,622.

Mr Jouning believes that more people are buying one “quality glossy” a month rather than three or four cheap weekly magazines. “The feeling we are getting is people are looking for quality, perhaps a reaction to the economic downturn,” he said. “Instead of a quick read, they want something that will last, and upmarket glossies provide them with that.”

Readers turned their back on celebrity titles. Bauer's Heat tumbled 15.8 per cent to 470,129, with NatMag's Reveal down 20.2 per cent to 277,002. More! decreased by 37.6 per cent to 162,544.

The total number of purchased sales declined by 3.4 per cent but annual consumer expenditure on magazines has remained flat at £1.64 billion as price rises have offset the loss of readers.

Title Race

— IPC (Time Warner) 6.51 million (-4.8%)

— H Bauer 3.36m (-4.2%)*

— Bauer Media (H Bauer) 3.26m (-10.8%)*

— NatMags (Hearst Corp) 3.14m (+5.7%)

— BBC 3.14m (+3.6%)

— Condé Nast (Advance) 1.59m (+1.1%)

* Under same ownership but each unit is run separately

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