Isabella Piasecka, Media Week, 19 August 2008, 07:30am

Children - Panini's new title takes the lead in kids' division

Panini stormed to the top of the children's market with its new launch Disney High School Musical, which debuted with an impressive circulation of 142,053, some 30,000 copies ahead of the number two magazine, Titan's The Simpsons Comics.

BBC Worldwide's Doctor Who Adventures magazine

BBC Worldwide's Doctor Who Adventures, the last period's top performer, slipped to fourth place with a circulation of 93,741, a year-on-year fall of 39.5%.

Pauline Cooke, publisher of pre-school magazines at BBC Worldwide, said the slip is due to the title's change in frequency from fortnightly to weekly. She said: "We are looking to increase annual sales from 3.7 million copies (as a fortnightly) to 4.5 million copies (as a weekly)."

BBC Worldwide's other children's bestseller, In The Night Garden, posted a 6.1% period-on-period fall to 103,644 copies. Meanwhile, its sister title Toybox saw a year-on-year drop of 20.7%, down to 73,290 copies, while new launch CBeebies Animals debuted with a circulation of 58,558.

Cooke says the BBC's core titles, including Charlie & Lola, have held up well in a market to some extent affected by the weather and wider economic conditions.

She says: "We're positive a magazine is still the cheapest thing a parent can buy for a child in a credit crunch."