Could it be that we're finally bitched out?
There's some evidence to suggest it's so. After years of getting trashier and trashier, celebrity magazines in the UK may be getting their comeuppance.
Circulation is actually off for the nastier titles, the ones that follow Britney Spears about like a bad odor, reporting on her every manic misbehavior. Circulation is up for OK!, which presents stars in a favorable light.
“Perhaps the nasty stuff -- where you have picture of someone with arrow pointing at a hairy armpit-- is going out,” ventures Barbara Rowlands, program director of the magazines journalism department at London’s City University.
If Brits are in fact growing bored with Britney fodder, it's significant for the U.S. market, since what happens across the pond tends to work its way over to America.
Overall, circulation in Britain’s crowded celeb category fell 3.2 percent in the second half of 2007 compared to the year-earlier period, according to recent Audit Bureau of Circulations figures.
Heat, the title that sparked the mad rush of British magazines into the bitchier side of celebrity gossip a decade ago, was down 11 percent, to 533,034. Closer, another title of that ilk, was down 10.7 percent to 548,594. Another, Now, was down 12.9 percent, to 470,290.
Yet over the same six months Northern & Shell’s OK! was up 9.5 percent to 683,451, making it the No. 1 magazine in the category, which would suggest, as Rowlands observes, "Interest is strong in celebrities, generally.”
But one media observer thinks the trend may run deeper.
“I suggest people might be starting to get tired of the cult of celebrity," says Alex Randall, head of digital trading for Carat and Vizeum, the media buying outfit. He points to declining interest in celebrity reality shows like “Celebrity Big Brother,” which after an initial splash featuring B-list celebrities is expected to take a break from airing this year.
If there is a backlash, it may be the result of an increasingly invasive and exploitative coverage of the likes of Spears and others, such as singer Amy Winehouse. Says Randall: “It’s almost car-crash editorial.”
Indeed, earlier this year Nick Stern, a long-time British paparazzi, quit covering Spears because, as he explained in press accounts, the way she was being pursued was dangerous, both to Spears and the public.
But there may be other reasons behind the declines in sales of some of the trashier celeb titles, less noble ones.
Northern & Shell has upped its marketing of OK!, according to Universal McCann, while spending was cut back for Heat and Closer, former Emap titles that were sold to Bauer Consumer Media late last year.
Also up was Star, rising 13.4 percent, to 305,806. It's also owned by Northern & Shell, and it also got a boost in spending, but it shares more with Closer and Heat that it does with OK!
Yet another possible reason for the circulation declines: Celebrity coverage is now everywhere, in newspapers, on TV, and all over the internet. As such, says Derek Terrington, media analyst at Blue Oak Capital, a stock brokerage, it’s not surprising that some magazines are feeling the pinch.
