OKAY! The magazine ends its weekly publication

OKAY! was knocked out!

Page Six learned that OK! The magazine will stop publishing its weekly print edition after 17 years.

It is the first of the major titles in the troubled weekly celebrity market to succumb.

We are told that he will continue to publish occasional special issues and that his website – which is owned by a different company than the print edition – will remain online.

British businessman and former pornographer Richard Desmond launched the magazine in the United States in 2005 after its UK version became a smash hit.

Desmond’s Northern & Shell publishing house planned to take People Magazine as the country’s top celebrity weekly, and spent a fortune buying exclusive celebrity stories and staging stunning photo shoots.

It scored some early successes, announcing that 16-year-old Disney star Jamie Lynn Spears was expecting a baby and winning exclusive rights to Khloe Kardashian’s whirlwind wedding to Lamar Odom.

But when it became clear People couldn’t be shaken from its No. 1 weekly spot, the investment in OK! declined, leaving it to battle with Star and Life & Style at the lower end of the starry market.

Northern & Shell sold it to American Media Inc. – then publisher of the National Enquirer and Star – in 2011. AMI then picked up Us Weekly, Life & Style, In Touch and Closer, leaving People as the only celebrity title that the company did. ‘city. Then he sold the entire group to a360 in 2020.

Readership of OK! — along with many other celebrity titles — continued to decline. The struggling market has taken another hit during the COVID lockdown as it relies on sales to commuters and travelers at airports and train stations.

Doug Olsen, a former executive at rival publisher Meredith, took the helm at a360 in 2020.

The OK! was purchased by Empire Media, which also owns Radar Online and the US edition of Grazia Magazine, in 2020.

OKAY! shares most of its editorial staff with other a360 titles and there shouldn’t be any massive layoffs.

A representative for OK! did not answer us.