Jade Goody's terminal illness has barely been off the red-top front pages, and OK! has now published a tribute issue with her 'final words' – while she is still alive

Its exclusive coverage of Jade Goody's wedding boosted OK! magazine's sales to nearly 2 million, but its latest edition – a Jade Goody "official tribute issue 1981-2009" featuring her "last words" – is at best premature, at worst in appalling bad taste.

The first of three wedding issues of Richard Desmond's celebrity gossip magazine sold 1.8 million, according to reports in MediaWeek, more than three times its average circulation of 508,504 in the second half of 2008.

Coverage of Goody's plight – rarely off the tabloid front pages – has also boosted sales of the Sun, according to a senior executive on the paper, a rise that is likely to be mirrored by its red-top rivals.

Goody has featured on six of the Sun's last seven front pages. Its coverage is also thought to have contributed to a big rise in traffic to the Sun's website last month.

Where will all this coverage end? The only thing we can say for certain is that it won't end with Goody's untimely death. OK! seems to have got there already, with this week's edition, dated 24 March, headlined a "Jade Goody official tribute issue" promising her "final words" and "unseen pictures".

"In loving memory", says the strapline under the OK! logo. All of it is a "world exclusive", of course.

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