Things far from OK! as Desmond feels the Heat

Celebrity gossip magazines were plunged into a catfight worthy of their most highly-strung subjects yesterday as new figures showed a huge drop in sales for Richard Desmond's OK! Magazine.

Editors traded allegations of plagiarism and "naffness" as the Audit Bureau of Circulation figures showed overall sales for OK! down, year-on-year, by 17 per cent to 486,858 copies.

It was the only one of the four leading celebrity titles which suffered a drop in sales.

Relative newcomer Heat recorded an increase of 106 per cent, to 355,304, market leader Now rose 16 per cent to 552,744 and Hello! magazine went up five per cent to 526,947.

The editor of Now, Jane Ennis, claimed Hello! and OK! were suffering because A-list celebrities were starting to regard selling pictures of their weddings or babies as "naff". She accused Heat of copying many of her magazine's ideas.

In a bid to boost circulation, OK! now comes with a supplement called Hot Stars, which has been described as a "Heat clone" and has provoked threats of legal action.

Ms Ennis also claimed the supplement aimed to hoodwink readers into believing they were getting a free copy of Now because the front cover includes a strapline reading "Now free with OK!".

She said: "OK! and Hello! have suffered because there were no big exclusives last year like the Posh Spice and David Beckham or Michael Douglas and Catherine Zeta-Jones weddings. An A-list celebrity wedding can put a million or so on their circulation and if people have decided they don't want to sell their weddings to magazines it hurts them.

"It can't just be any wedding, it has to be A-list and I think a lot of A-list people consider it a bit naff to sell their wedding or baby pictures. They think they will end up like Anthea Turner selling a bar of chocolate."

Ms Ennis said Heat's complaints that OK!'s supplement was copying its ideas was ironic because when the title was faced with closure three years ago it repositioned itself by copying Now.

But Heat editor Mark Frith said the idea his magazine had copied Now was "laughable". He said: "If you look at Heat and compare it to Now page by page we are a far superior product. I think they are just feeling the pressure."

Emap, which publishes Heat, has said it may take legal action if OK!'s supplement shows too many similarities. Mr Frith said it was a "poor attempt" to mimic his title. "I think people will see through it. They will realise when they pick it up it's rubbish."

He said ABC figures, excluding bulk sales and the cheap editions of Now and OK! sold in deals with the Daily Mail and Daily Express, showed Heat had overtaken OK!. "We are now the fastest growing magazine in Europe and in six months we will have overtaken another title and it will be a two-horse race," he said. The editor of Hot Stars, Martin Smith, denied it had copied Heat, saying it was based on OK!'s listings guide, which he had previously edited.

Yesterday's figures showed an overall decline for the men's magazine sector, with FHM falling by 20 per cent, year on year, to 570,719, Loaded down 12 per cent to 308,711 and Maxim down 16 per cent to 276,640.

Of music titles, the rock magazine Kerrang! Showed a 63.5 per cent increase to 76,841 copies. Publishers Emap said it had overtaken NME and was now the biggest selling music magazine in Britain.