Fewer readers flipping through glossies' pages.

Newsstand sales of regional magazines, including Los Angeles and Angeleno, were down in the six months ended June 30, echoing a national trend that saw declines in single-copy sales of similar titles in New York and Chicago.

Los Angeles magazine's single-copy sales were down 2.4 percent, to 21,128, while Angeleno's were down 15.7 percent, to 1,376.

Both magazines fared better on total circulation, which includes newsstand sales, paid subscriptions and free copies. For the first six months of the year Angeleno had a circulation of 53,857, up 10.8 percent compared with the like period a year earlier, while Los Angeles magazine was down 1.8 percent, to 151,307.

Alan Klein, publisher of Los Angeles, blamed the drop in newsstand sales on new celebrity titles such as OK! along with the more established People and US Weekly.

While gossipy celebrity titles don't compete editorially with service-oriented periodicals, they do vie for sought-after positions at newsstands and supermarket checkout lines. In that competition, the local magazines are at a distinct disadvantage against celebrity titles.

Klein said US Weekly displaced his magazine from the front of checkout stands at Ralphs supermarkets earlier this year, leading to some of the decline in single-copy sales. "People go to US Weekly, Entertainment Weekly, etc., for their celebrity covers, while they read us for service features like where to get the best sushi, what are the best neighborhoods, etc.," Klein said. "But we all compete for the same display."

Along other local titles, Distinction magazine, a luxury title published by Tribune Co. unit Tribune Los Angeles, had a circulation of 37,487, down from 37,672 a year earlier, according to the Audit Bureau of Circulations. It does not break out subscriptions from newsstand sales.