• by Erik Sass  @eriksass1, January 16, 2009

2008 was a blighted year for the nation's leading magazine publishers. While the magazine industry saw total ad pages decline 11.7% in 2008 compared to 2007, according to the latest figures from the Publishers Information Bureau, some of the top publishers suffered even bigger drop-offs, according to TNS Media Intelligence.

Among the top 10 publishers by size in the TNS group publisher's report, Meredith took the biggest year-over-year hit, with total ad pages falling 18.1% from 13,822 in 2007 to 11,320 in 2008. This reflects the misfortune of flagship titles Better Homes and Gardens--down 17.7% to 1,689--and Ladies' Home Journal, down 20.3% to 1,232. Also contributing to the steep slide were More, down 30.3% to 907 ad pages; Fitness, down 22.6% to 675; and Family Circle, down 13.7% to 1,560.

Meredith is not alone. Declines at Conde Nast also exceeded the industry average--albeit by a smaller margin, with total ad pages falling 13.3% from 41,640 in 2007 to 36,106 in 2008. This was the result of steep declines at some of Conde's biggest titles, with The New Yorker down 26.8% to 1,478; Gourmet down 23.4% to 959; Bon Appetit down 16.5% to 870; Vanity Fair down 15.5% to 1,912; Glamour down 12.4% to 1,831; GQ down 11.5% to 1,653; Lucky down 11% to 1,697; and Vogue down 9.7% to 2,890.

Among the top 10, enthusiast publisher Source Interlink had the biggest percentage decline last year, with ad pages tumbling 21.4%, from 6,705 in 2007 to 5,269 in 2008. This was due in part to steep declines at titles like Power & Motoryacht and Soap Opera Digest.

There were more modest declines at niche auto titles, including Automobile, Motor Trend and Hot Rod. Time Inc. actually came in with a slightly below-average loss of 11.5%, from 31,742 in 2007 to 28,083 in 2008--but this was nothing to celebrate, as some of the publisher's biggest titles are taking the worst hits. Flagship newsweekly Time was down 19% to 1,752, Entertainment Weekly tumbled 20.4% to 1,215, In Style was down 14.7% to 2,749, and People fell 12% to 3,422.

Rounding out the bigger publisher tracked by TNS, in 2008 Hearst's ad pages fell 8% to 18,299; Bonnier fell 8.1% to 16,415; Hachette fell 8.8% to 12,901; American Media fell 6% to 7,961; American Express Publishing fell 6.8% to 4,641, Wenner Media, publisher of Rolling Stone, was down 10.2% to 4,230; and Forbes Inc. was down 15.6% to 2,775. Among the top publishers, Rodale--publisher of Men's Health--was down the least, with a 5.2% drop to 5,086.