In the U.K., Grit Trumps Glam

Folio: The Magazine for Magazine Management, Feb 1, 2003 by Ruth Addicott

Byline: Ruth Addicott

These days, suffering is bigger than celebrity - at least on newsstands in the United Kingdom. As a torrent of star-soaked launches saturates the market, fascination for real-life stories and "misery" is proving to be stronger in Britain than celebrity obsession.

With sales of 1.2 million, Bauer's reality-based Take a Break is the best-selling women's weekly in Britain - consistently beating out all of the celebrity titles. And right on its heels is IPC Media's Chat, which boasts weekly sales of 515,000. With its sensational coverlines, true-to-life sob stories, and offers of cash prizes, Chat has become the fastest-growing women's weekly in the U.K.

"In tough times - economic depression, a looming war, threat of terrorism - people want to be reassured that there are others suffering," says Chat editor Paul Merrill. "The sadder our stories are, the more copies we shift." A truly horrifying headline can draw 50,000 extra sales, he adds. An issue that shouted "Fat to freak - I lost nine stone and grew a third breast" flew off newsstands. Other best-sellers included: "I saw his willy on our wedding night...and stayed a virgin for 34 years," "My wife killed our boys to pay off our debt," and a cover featuring makeup tips to mask facial bruising. "Domestic violence is something our readers suffer, and, rather than just ignore it, we thought we'd give them some handy hints on how to cover it up," Merrill says, maintaining that most women's weeklies can't keep up because they are "banal" and too afraid to cause offense.

But other U.K. magazines are catching on. Cosmopolitan is publishing a 34-page "real-life" supplement with its February issue, and celebrity weeklies Now and Closer are regularly featuring two or three noncelebrity true-life stories.

Closer editor Jane Johnson claims the celebrity world is moving nearer to the "real" world because of the popularity of reality TV shows. And John Dale, who has edited Take a Break for 11 years, says: "Celebrity journalism shows us what we would like to be, whereas real life reveals what we really are. We all like a bit of each, the dreams versus the down-to-earth."

Ruth Addicott is magazines editor of the Press Gazette in the United Kingdom.