The ailing U.S. economy has begun to affect periodical publishing, with newstand sales of U.S. magazines falling 6.3 per cent in the first half of 2008.

Consumers are cutting back on non-essential spending because of rising gas and food costs, and that's hurt sales of most magazines, according to the Audit Bureau of Circulations.

Cosmopolitan, usually the top selling magazine on newstands, saw sales fall six per cent to 1.75 million copies in the year to June 30.

Among the top 10 U.S. magazines, In Touch Weekly, US Weekly, Woman's World and O, The Oprah Magazine, each posted a double-digit decline.

Only People, which published the first pictures of Angelina Jolie's twins earlier this year and recently won a bidding war to publish pictures of J-Lo's new babies, posted newstand gains. Its sold 5.2 per cent more copies in the first half of the year.

Newstand sales are a revenue generator for magazines, because newstand prices are higher than subscription prices.

However, many magazines try to encourage subscriptions in an economic downturn when consumers are less likely to spend freely. Ad rates are often contingent on circulation figures.

U.S. newspapers have suffered significant declines in newstand sales and subscription circulation in the past 10 years as consumers turned more to the internet and other electronic media for their news.

Magazines may be suffering the same fate, the audit bureau said.

As with newspapers, magazines have been struggling with declining ad revenue. In the second quarter, magazines had 8.2 per cent fewer ad pages, the Publishers Information Bureau reported.

With files from the Associated Press