Red Ink: Monthly Mags Down 21%

magazines

 

September brought no relief for beleaguered consumer magazines, which saw ad pages tumble 23.6% for the month and 21.2% for the third quarter, compared to the same periods last year, according to the Media Industry Newsletter.

Losses were spread across all major categories, with most big titles taking double-digit hits. This is bad news for magazines as they head into the crucial fourth quarter. September has traditionally been viewed as a barometer for advertiser demand in the final quarter of the year.

Of 154 monthlies tracked by MIN, only 22 titles -- 14% -- saw ad pages increase or remain stable in September, compared to the same month last year. Nine titles have seen ad pages increase for the year-to-date, including People Style Watch, up 17.7%; Family Circle, up 15.4%; Flex, up 12.3%; Fitness, up 11.5%; Saveur, up 10.7%; Muscle & Fitness, up 10%; Antiques, the Magazine, up 8%; and Successful Farming, up 5.3%; National Geographic Kids, up 0.4%.

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There was a lot of bad news to choose from, partly because of Conde Nast's decision to cancel "Fashion Rocks" this year, depriving its fashion titles of their usual fall boost.

In order of the size of decrease, some of the biggest losers in September were: Scientific American (down 58.9%), Town & Country (58.8%), W (53.3%), Gourmet (51.9%), Allure (51.6%), Self (50.9%), Dwell (50.2%), Elle Décor (47.9%), Architectural Digest (44.4%), Motor Trend (44%), Wired (43%), Glamour (41.9%), Automobile (40.6%), Bon Appetit (40.5%), Men's Journal (38.3%), Spin (37.7%), Vogue (36.7%), Travel + Leisure (36.5%), Vanity Fair (36.5%), Lucky (36.2%), Fast Company (35.7%), O, the Oprah Magazine (35.6%), Prevention (34%), Food & Wine (33.4%), Popular Mechanics (33.4%), Metropolitan Home (33%), Martha Stewart Living (31.4%), Teen Vogue (31.3%) and Money (30.1%). Most of these magazines also led in terms of year-to-date drops.

The month was still weak even when Conde Nast is taken out of the equation. Excluding 16 major Conde Nast titles, such as Vogue, Glamour and GQ, total ad pages at the remaining magazines fell 19% from 12,641 in September 2008 to 10,269 this year.

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