Apalling rubbish like 'Closer' could be consigned to history thanks to the mobile web.

While many areas of the print media are suffering in the current economic climate, weekly celebrity magazines continue to sell well. They may be pretty light on substance (”Is Jennifer Aniston pregnant?” they repeatedly ask on their covers – look inside and you’ll find lots of photos and no answers) and occasionally tactless (OK recently published a tribute issue to Jade Goody before she died) but for many people they’re dose of escapism to while away a teabreak at work.

While newspapers are having a hard time in the face of much faster news sources online, celebrity magazines still have a place in people’s shopping baskets. Nothing lasts forever though, and the days of the likes of Heat and Closer dominating magazine circulation charts may be numbered.

Five years ago, would you have considered connecting to the internet with your mobile phone? Chances are you wouldn’t; the cost was crazily expensive and the sites that were available were pale imitations of the ‘real web’. These days, through the promotion of flat-rate data contracts and network pushing ‘Facebook on your phone’, people are realising just how powerful the mobile web can be.

Mobile web access still has a long way to go though. Unless you have an expensive smartphone the simple act of entering a URL can be a time-consuming pain. As big-screened phones with touch interfaces and easy-to-use, good looking browsers become cheaper and people’s old phones are replaced, we’re only a couple of years away from a large proportion of the population having iPhone-esque handsets in their pockets.

When that happens everyone from supermarket checkout staff to finance managers will have devices capable of delivering up-to-the-minute, mobile optimised celebrity news with video clips and magazines will suddenly look like drab alternatives. As someone who couldn’t care less whether or not Cheryl Cole has had an argument or not, I can’t wait. Suddenly this fluffy rubbish will be off our shelves for good.

Fingers crossed the mobile web delivers!