• by Erik Sass  @eriksass1, January 17, 2011

Last year, the consumer magazine business enjoyed a recovery that was tentative at best, -- with total ad pages basically flat at just under 170,000, according to the Publishers Information Bureau, even as official rate card revenues (often considered a less accurate gauge of the industry's health) rose 3.1% to just over $20 billion.

While simple stability is a welcome change after the steep downturn accompanying the recession, the industry has a long way to go before it makes up the lost ground: Total ad pages in 2010 were down 31% from 246,147 in 2006.

Moreover, the fitful recovery in 2010 has also been uneven, according to the PIB -- with 128 out of the 213 titles still publishing at year's end (60%) posting ad page growth compared to 2009. Of these, 59 titles (27.7% of the total) saw ad pages grow by 10% or more. Meanwhile, 85 titles (40%) suffered ad page declines, often compounding previous years' losses; of these, 25 titles (11.7% of the total) saw ad pages decline by 10% or more.

Shelter and regional living titles felt the effects of the continuing housing market slump, but there were still a good number of bright spots. From 2009-2010, ad pages increased 35.3% at Elle Décor, from 828 to 1,119; 10.5% at This Old House, from 456 to 504; 9.4% at House Beautiful, from 650 to 711; 7.1% at Town & Country, from 894 to 958; 5.7% at Architectural Digest, from 791 to 834; and 3% at Dwell, from 645 to 664.

However, Country Living saw ad pages fall 25.5% from 877 to 652; Coastal Living tumbled 25% from 605 to 453; Midwest Living slid 9.2% from 543 to 493; Southern Living fell 8.9% from 1,059 to 965; Traditional Home slipped 4.7% from 622 to 593; and Veranda dipped 3.5% from 487 to 470. 2009-2010 also brought the closings of Country Home, Domino, Metropolitan Home and Southern Accents.

Among domestic titles, Real Simple was up 13.6% from 1,442 to 1,639; Martha Stewart Living increased 7% from 1,075 to 1,150; Good Housekeeping increased 5.5%, from 1,439 to 1,518; and Better Homes and Gardens inched up 0.8% from 1,725 to 1,739. But Ladies' Home Journal fell 13.5% from 1,270 to 1,098, and Family Circle slipped 2.3% from 1,739 to 1,693.

Women's lifestyle titles fared pretty well overall, but with a few notable exceptions.

Ad pages increased 7.9% at Working Mother, from 474 to 512; O, The Oprah Magazine was up 7.3% from 1,349 to 1,448; Redbook rose 6.6% from 1,349 to 1,438; Cosmopolitan grew 6.1% from 1,391 to 1,475; First for Women increased 4.6% from 559 to 584; and Woman's Day edged up 1.3% from 1,514 to 1,533. But ad pages fell 6.4% at More, from 918 to 859; 3.9% at Self, from 1,019 to 979; and 1.1% at Woman's World, from 361 to 357.

For the most part, fashion and beauty titles did even better. Ad pages increased 49.5% at People Style Watch, from 629 to 940; 22.4% at Life & Style Weekly, from 384 to 470; 19.5% at Marie Claire, from 1,125 to 1,232; 17.8% at Harper's Bazaar, from 1,523 to 1,794; 16% at Vogue, from 1,989 to 2,306; 12% at Essence, from 1,151 to 1,289; 9.8% at Elle, from 2,083 to 2,287; 8.6% at In Style, from 2,312 to 2,511; 7.7% at Glamour, from 1,508 to 1,624; 6.8% at Teen Vogue, from 748 to 800; and 1% at Allure, from 1,156 to 1,168. On the down side, however, M Magazine slid 7.9% from 167 to 154; W Magazine slipped 1.9% from 1,052 to 1,032; and Lucky was basically flat with a 0.8% dip from 1,242 to 1,232.

Celebrity mags did even better than fashion, posting double-digit percentage increases in ad pages. Star soared 18.8% from 1,131 to 1,344; Entertainment Weekly jumped 18.6% from 966 to 1,146; OK Weekly increased 17.9% from 904 to 1,066; People grew 5.6% from 3,367 to 3,356; and In Touch Weekly edged up 2% from 855 to 872. On the down side, Us Weekly -- which pioneered the new weekly celebrity category at the beginning of the last decade -- slipped 0.9% from 1,712 to 1,697.

Men's interest titles did pretty well, although fortunes varied significantly both between and within categories. Some titles in the lifestyle and fashion category did pretty well, with Esquire jumping 10.8% from 750 to 830 and GQ up 10% from 1,189 to 1,308. But Maxim was down 6% from 638 to 600, Men's Journal fell 1.5% from 846 to 834, and Details slipped 1.3% from 787 to 777.

Likewise, in the fitness category, Men's Health grew 6.7% from 811 to 866 -- but competitor Men's Fitness ended up the year slightly down, with a 3.6% drop from 682 to 657, while enthusiast mag Muscle & Fitness tumbled 14.3% from 1,989 to 1,705. In sports, ESPN Magazine soared 22.7% from 1,129 to 1,385, but rival Sports Illustrated dipped 1.8% from 1,596 to 1,567.

Some of the best news for the magazine industry was the return of automotive advertising, which powered a strong year for auto magazines (a de facto men's interest category), including both general consumer and niche enthusiast titles. On an encouraging note, none of the major auto titles tracked by PIB saw ad pages decrease in 2010. Popular Mechanics roared ahead with a 20.4% increase from 653 to 787; Automobile soared 13.2% from 511 to 578, Motor Trend jumped 10.7% from 722 to 800; Autoweek was up 6.9% from 793 to 847, Hot Rod grew 5.6% from 533 to 562; Car and Driver increased 4.5% from 806 to 843; and Road & Track was up 3.1% from 799 to 824.

Turning to general interest titles, newsweeklies turned in distinctly mediocre results in 2010 -- although there were two noteworthy exceptions, both (relative) newcomers: The Week, where ad pages soared 16.8% from 660 to 771, and The Economist, where ad pages grew 3.8% from 1,971 to 2,045. By contrast, Newsweek tumbled 19.8% from 1,117 to 896, while Time slipped 2.9% from 1,447 to 1,406. 2010 also saw the shuttering of the print edition of U.S. News and World Report.

The business category posted surprisingly strong results, perhaps reflecting the prospects for a broader economic turnaround.

Ad pages at Fast Company soared 26.5% from 426 to 539; Inc. jumped 16.5% from 620 to 722; Barron's was up 14.3% from 1,027 to 1,174; Entrepreneur grew 10% from 852 to 934; Kiplinger's Personal Finance increased 9.3% from 280 to 306; Harvard Business Review grew 8.9% from 344 to 374; SmartMoney was up 5.7% from 387 to 409; Money was up 5.4% from 563 to 594; Bloomberg Business Week, newly acquired by the business information giant, saw ad pages grow 3.5% from 1,247 to 1,291, and Fortune grew 1% from 1,524 to 1,539. On the down side, ad pages at Forbes dipped 4.8% from 1,937 to 1,845.