The supermarket groups continue to expand their share of the magazines market. The latest Monthly Monitor from Seymour Marketing shows that between September and November, Tesco gained 0.2% of the market and Sainsbury 0.1%, compared with August to October. WH Smith Combined has again recorded a loss, down 0.1% and Independents have shown a further loss of 0.5%, now down to 39.7% of the market. Three of the major groups showed a loss in market share year on year. TM Retail has lost 0.2% of the total market, WH Smith Combined showed a loss of 0.2%, but the biggest losers have been the Independents, who have lost 1.3% of the market, according to the Monitor. TM Retail actually shows the biggest loss (4.1%) of its magazine business and supermarkets have again seen the biggest gains. Regular frequency magazine launches in January were few and far between but plenty of big launches are lined up for the coming months. The number of regular frequency launches in January is falling year-on-year, with 20 regular launches in 1999, 12 in 2000 and seven in 2001. Those seven launches were across six sectors, two in Leisure Interests. Comics & Teenage, Computing, General Interest, Sport and Women's Interest each had one launch. So far this year the number of regular frequency magazine closures is 28. The Computing sector has borne the brunt with 13. There were eight closures in the Puzzles sector, and three from Comics & Teenage, while there were one each in General Interest, Domestic Interest and News & Current Affairs. {{CTN }}

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