• by Larry Dobrow , January 20, 2004

Five of the 12 ad categories monitored by PIB saw ad page growth in 2003, with automotive (9.4 percent growth, to 22,403 pages) and drugs/remedies (10.9 percent, 15,408 pages) leading the way. The biggest declines were, predictably, seen in those categories still experiencing severe economic distress: financial/insurance/real estate (a 11.2 percent drop in ad pages) and public transportation/hotels/resorts (10 percent).

The top performer among individual titles in terms of percentage growth was Guideposts, which jumped its pages by more than 81 percent in its third year of accepting ads. Of course, the mag only ran 342 pages, meaning that the performances of Bridal Guide (35 percent growth, from 2,316 to 3,128 pages) and Lucky (46 percent growth, to 1,478 pages) were comparatively more impressive. Both Elle Girl (up 86 percent in pages and 131 percent in revenue) and Blender (34 percent/66 percent) saw substantial gains as well, although those year-to-year comparisons are skewed by frequency increases in 2003.

The New York Times Magazine ranked second in ad pages among the 248 national magazines measured by the PIB. For 2003, The Times' Magazine had a total of 3,363 ad pages, an increase of 49 ad pages over the previous year.

Repeated boasts by publishers and buyers about the vitality of magazines targeting the Hispanic audience proved prescient, as these titles outpaced most other mag niches in 2003. Three of the category's biggest publications posted double-digit gains in both ad pages and revenue over 2002 levels: People En Español (up 15.3 percent in pages, to 772, and 19.7 percent in revenue, to $29.3 million), Latina (29.8 percent, to 883/51.2 percent, to $17.5 million), RD Selecciones (24.8 percent, to 482/49.0 percent, to $12.2 million).

Indeed, preliminary estimates compiled by Media Economics Group's HispanicMagazineMonitor service show nearly $146 million in ad spending and 11,230 ad pages in the 58 Hispanic-focused titles it monitored in 2003. HMM also noted that Procter & Gamble spent the most money advertising in Hispanic magazines last year: $11,188,958 to advertise 45 brands in 25 publications.

The release of the PIB data was stalled by a change in the way three Advance Magazine Group divisions (Condé Nast Publications, Fairchild Publications, and Golf Digest Companies) report their ad revenues. In 2003, those divisions started to report ad revenue on a national page rate basis, as opposed to a category rate basis. To ensure accurate year-by-year comparisons, their 2002 and first-quarter 2003 ad revenue figures were adjusted. Dom Rossi, PIB council chair and Reader's Digest Association vice president/executive director of corporate sales, said the adjustments were made to "protect the consistency" of the numbers.