• by March 13, 2006

In the print advertising wars, newspapers are enjoying a slight edge over their magazine counterparts, according to new figures released by representatives of both industries.

Two months into the New Year, ad pages in magazines are hanging on compared to last year, but not by much. On the newspaper front, fourth-quarter 2005 print advertising showed a slight gain, but paled in comparison to continued double-digit ad growth on the newspapers' Web sites.

Magazine ad pages in February increased 2.2 percent compared to the same period last year, according to figures released Friday by Publishers Information Bureau (PIB). However, due to a 1.9 percent drop in January, year-to-date ad pages showed a meager 0.3 percent gain over 2005. (In January, consumer magazines measured by PIB sold a total of 13,342.6 ad pages, a decline of 1.9 percent from January 2005.)

PIB also reported revenue gains for magazines in February of 4.7 percent, but that figure is calculated on official rate cards and does not reflect discounts. As a result, ad pages represent a more accurate barometer of the industry's overall health.

Year-to-date, PIB revenue showed a 3 percent increase over the same period in 2004. PIB also said 8 of 12 major advertising categories posted page increases over February 2005, with three categories displaying double-digit PIB growth: Drugs & Remedies; Apparel & Accessories; and Retail. Other February growth categories included Toiletries & Cosmetics; Media & Advertising; Financial, Insurance & Real Estate; and Technology.

Year-to-date, half of the 12 major magazine advertising categories generated increases in PIB-measured revenue and pages. They were: Drugs & Remedies; Apparel & Accessories; Financial, Insurance & Real Estate; Retail; Technology; and Public Transportation, Hotels & Resorts.

In the newspaper industry, where many companies are struggling in the face of challenges posed by emerging media, publishers continue to reap the benefits of their ongoing efforts to beef up their online presence.

New figures from the Newspaper Association of America showed that combined advertising expenditures at newspapers and their Web sites totaled $14.3 billion for the fourth quarter of 2005, a 1.4 percent gain over the same period a year earlier.

However, the real growth came on newspaper Web sites, where spending continued to show double-digit growth--with a 32.5 percent increase over the same period the previous year, for a total of $552 million. It was the seventh consecutive quarter of double-digit online increases, the NAA reported. For the full year, ad spending on newspaper Web sites jumped 31.5 percent, reaching a new record of $2.0 billion.

"Despite a challenging year for advertising overall, ad spending on newspaper Web sites were extremely strong, and newspapers enter 2006 aggressively taking steps to build an audience across online and offline platforms," said NAA President and CEO John Sturm. "Not only have newspaper Web sites captured a large and growing audience, but these ad spending estimates for 2005 demonstrate that newspapers are successfully monetizing the value of their Internet investments, leveraging online advertising opportunities, and building consumer loyalties on the Web."

Among the major print categories in the fourth quarter for print newspaper advertising, classified led the way with a 3 percent increase over 2004--while retail was down 1.3 percent, and national was down 0.53 percent.