NEW YORK — The magazine business may be challenged, but don’t slap a toe tag on it yet. A number of well-established fashion and lifestyle titles managed to post impressive gains on the newsstand in the second half of 2005, according to figures filed with the Audit Bureau of Circulations. ABC won’t release the full report until Monday, but a preview of the numbers shows large increases in single-copy sales for Vanity Fair (up 31.8 percent versus July-December 2004), Men’s Journal (up 32.4 percent), Details (20.8 percent), Elle (15.2 percent), Esquire (14.1 percent) and W (13 percent). On the flip side, two newer magazines that should be in the first bloom of youth reported lower newsstand averages last year: Best Life (down 10.5 percent) and Cargo (down 14.8 percent). Both magazines published more issues in 2005 than in 2004, however, meaning individual issues were on sale for shorter periods. (A Cargo spokeswoman also noted the magazine sold more single copies per issue in the second half of 2005 than in the year’s first half; Best Life was roughly flat in this comparison.) In the teen category, Cosmogirl, though flat with 2004, retained its new distinction as the top seller on the newsstand. Ellegirl was up 21.7 percent; Seventeen, 5 percent, and Teen Vogue, 4 percent. Teen People declined to share its numbers with WWD, but sources said the Time Inc. title, which has a new managing editor and publisher, was down more than 10 percent on the newsstand in the second half versus 2004.
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