• by Erik Sass  @eriksass1, February 17, 2010

Flat is the new fantastic in the world of traditional media, and monthly magazines have reached an even stretch after two years of straight declines, according to Media Industry Newsletter, covering forthcoming March issues. Total ad pages for monthly magazines are basically flat in March 2010 compared to March 2009, MIN says, totaling 10,857.

That's not to say there were no losses. Of the 173 monthly titles tracked by MIN in March, 31 (18%) experienced ad page declines of 9.9% or less compared to the same month last year, 22 (13%) saw ad pages decline 10%-19.9% and 19 (11%) suffered declines of 20% or more.

For the first quarter of 2010, monthlies' ad pages are down 5.7% compared to the same period in 2009, due to earlier drops in January and February.

However, there's no question the March (and first quarter) results are a big improvement over 2009, when magazines suffered double-digit percentage drops in ad pages virtually every month and quarter. The 2010 results are also better than a large part of 2008, when magazines began their two-year tumble.

Beginning with the first quarter of 2008, according to the Publishers Information Bureau, total ad pages at leading weekly and monthly consumer magazines have experienced quarterly ad page declines of 6.4%, 8.2%, 12.9% and 17.1% in 2008, then 25.9%, 29.4%, 26.6%, and 21.6%, in 2009, respectively.

Against this backdrop, the 5.7% decline in monthly ad pages definitely offers hope that the industry's long, vertiginous slide may finally be over.