• by Erik Sass  @eriksass1, July 29, 2009

Consumer magazine publishers continued to take a beating in the second quarter of 2009, with Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia and McGraw Hill, publisher of BusinessWeek, both reporting big declines in publishing ad revenue. Worse, executives held out little hope of a turnaround in print advertising in the second half of 2009.

Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia's total revenues fell 26%, from $77.1 million in the second quarter of 2008 to $57 million this year. This was due, in large part, to a 28% decline in publishing revenues, from $46.2 million to $33.5 million, the bulk of this in advertising.

Circulation revenues also dropped 22%. MSLO broadcasting revenues declined, albeit more modestly, with a 9% drop from $11.3 million to $10.3 million, which the company attributed to a small ratings decrease. Merchandising, the third pillar of MSLO's business, saw revenues tumble 45% from $16.2 million to $9 million, mostly due to the winding down of its deal with Kmart.

The one positive note was Internet revenues, which jumped 28% from $3.2 million to $4.1 million, as page views increased 59% compared to the second quarter of 2008.

McGraw Hill reported that second-quarter revenues in its business-to-business magazine publishing business (which includes BusinessWeek, Construction Week, Aviation Week) fell 10.2% to $216 million. The percentage decline at BusinessWeek may have been greater, however, as ad pages declined 34.3% in the second quarter according to the Publishers Information Bureau.

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