Geri Halliwell has been on holiday in Mexico. Not many people know that – or care, it seems. In fact, the dearth of exciting gossip surrounding celebrities, possibly reining-in their lavish lifestyles in these straitened times, has been blamed for a plunge in the circulation of women’s weekly magazines.

Only two of them bucked the downward trend last year – Bella, published by H Bauer, up 16.9 per cent in the second half, and Hello!, owned by Eduardo Sánchez Junco, the Spanish media magnate, reporting a year-on-year rise of 7.1 per cent. The sector was down 8 per cent on the year.

Hello!, down slightly in the second half of 2008, now sells 432,649 copies a week, according to half-yearly figures from the Audit Bureau of Circulations, closing the gap on OK! Magazine, its Northern and Shell rival, whose circulation plunged by a disastrous 25.6 per cent last year.

Richard Desmond’s celebrity offering saw its circulation slide from nearly 700,000 to touching 500,000 over the 12 months, losing its slot as the second most popular women’s weekly to Bauer’s Closer.

Analysts suggested that the £2.95 cover price of OK! was causing it to lose sales in a sector where discounting has become the norm. Circulation of Heat magazine cooled rapidly, losing 11.7 per cent during 2008, but remaining stable in the second half of the year, at 470,000 copies.

Take a Break, the Bauer true-life publication, maintained its No 1 spot in the sector, but slipped below one million sales, down 3.9 per cent on the six months, to 943,000.

Its stablemate, Bella, put on 224,000 copies. Helen Lowe, the magazine’s publisher, said: “ Bella has stuck to its core values by providing entertainment through true-life features, celebrity gossip, style and service elements. [It] provides thirtysomething women with somewhere to go when they have outgrown the core celebrity titles.”

At the other end of the market, the high-end titles fared better, with Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar and Vanity Fair all holding on to sales over 2008, or even marginally increasing circulation. The sector saw growth of 7.4 per cent, although that was largely driven by a 20.7 per cent rise in the distribution of Asos.com, the fashion website’s free monthly glossy magazine. Red, the fashion and beauty offering from Hachette Filipacchi, achieved record sales of 225,000 copies after grinding out a 2.1 per cent growth in the second half of 2008, but Cosmopolitan lost 10,000 readers over the year, a fall of 2.1 per cent.

In the men’s market, there was similar pain for the downmarket titles, with FHM, Nuts, Zoo and Maxim all reporting double-digit falls in circulation for 2008. Maxim, from Dennis Publishing, took scant consolation in a 5.5 per cent growth on the period, with sales slipping by 41.4 per cent over the year, crashing through the 50,000 barrier from 78,500 to 46,000.

Loadedfell through the 100,000 barrier, dropping 21.7 per cent over the year to 90,000 copies, and Zoo was down nearly 19 per cent.

At the other end of the market, GQ powered to an 11th consecutive circulation increase to 130,000 copies. Condé Nast said the title also achieved a 15 per cent increase in subscriptions for the year, a record for the magazine.

In the music sector, Q magazine continued its lingering decline, recording a 9 per cent drop in sales for the second half of 2008, despite a much-trumpeted relaunch incorporating more lifestyle content. The Bauer monthly is now approaching the 100,000 mark, selling 103,000 copies, and could slip below the psychological benchmark at the next set of results.

Classic Rock and Metal Hammer, both from Future Publishing, were the top performers in the sector, seeing year-on-year growth of 4 per cent and 10 per cent respectively. Metal Hammer overtook New Musical Express, the industry bible, for the first time. NME, which has focused heavily on its web presence, lost nearly a quarter of its readers last year, dropping to 48,500 copies.

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