ARE YOU? OK!

For those discriminating gossip consumers who look at all the glossy tabloids on the newsstand and think, “What’s the difference?” OK! has found an answer: Two whole quarters!

The new issue of the weekly celebrity title has a cover graphic announcing OK! is “50¢ Less Than Us Weekly!”

Why the change? Perhaps it has something to do with OK!‘s circulation struggles. WWD reported (subscription required) Tuesday that the magazine, owned by British porn mogul Richard Desmond and introduced to the U.S. in August 2005, failed to meet its new circulation guarantee of 850,000 on each of the first six issues of the year. Sales of newsstand copies fell sharply following a price increase, enacted at the start of the year, from $1.99 to $2.99. Rivals In Touch and Life & Style continue to charge $1.99—yet, amazingly, they also manage to get their hands on paparazzi photos of Britney Spears with her head shaved. You just can’t buy that kind of journalism.