Japan's Celebrity Gossip Magazines

[Mulboyne]

[floatl][/floatl]Japan's magazine market remains in crisis with several long standing titles ceasing publication this year. However, one genre appears to be bucking the trend: the celebrity gossip magazine. Trans Media is widely credited with pioneering this segment with the introduction of Gossips, which appears monthly and has now been running for a full year. Other publishers have followed suit with titles such as Celeb Scandals, InCeleb, Celeb Times, Girl's Talk and Girl's Gossips. They deal almost exclusively in news and pictures of overseas celebrities, covering much the same ground as OK! magazine which itself announced the launch of an online Japanese edition earlier this year. Paris Hilton and Nicole Richie appear on a regular basis while the Olsen twins have also graced many a cover. One newer title, Slappy!!, already causing waves by eschewing the use of the words "Celeb", "Gossips" or "Girl's" in its name, has attempted to add some Japanese news to the mix but industry insiders think that market is already saturated. One editor believes the explosion of gossip sites on the web and access to overseas TV shows on DVD are factors behind the success of these new magazines. However, while sales figures are hard to come by, it seems likely that the magazines serve only a niche market.