New figures show that UK newsstand magazine sales for 2004 totalled over 1.3bn, with consumer spending on magazines topping 2bn for the first time.

Weekly titles such as Nuts, Zoo and Heat were major contributors to the growth, with a rise of 31m copies in the weekly sector to 934m copies.

But the weeklies' growth hit monthly sales hard, with a drop in total sales of 22m to 329m copies. Sales of fortnightlies rose by 4m to 60m over the year, while others rose 1m to 16m.

Elsewhere, July ABC newspaper circulation figures have shown strong growth for The Times, with a monthly rise of 2.13% to 698,043, up 7.32% since July 2004.

The Sun, up 3.5% month-on-month to 3.34m, and the Star, up 4.0% to 889,860, were the strongest performers among the tabloids.
But year-on-year figures showed that of the nationals, only The Times and the Scotsman grew sales, with all other titles showing stable or declining sales.

Story by Josh Brooks