After recent shake-ups including Conde Nast's closing of Celebrity Living and Cargo, and rumors that Maxim Publisher Felix Dennis plans to sell the publication amid a precipitous decline in ad pages, the PIB data is a shot in the arm for an industry that's been a favorite target of gloomy predictions about the future of print.
Automotive particularly weak In a report issued this morning, Merrill Lynch print media analyst Karl Choi cited an especially troubling sign, noting that the giant automotive ad category was "particularly" weak. "After a brief respite in March (up 8 percent in ad pages), automotive ad pages returned to a down trend, down 16.2 percent in April, making it the weakest category among the top 12 categories. Seven of the top 12 advertising categories posted a drop in ad pages in April."
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Categories leading growth in April 2006 included retail, drugs and remedies, technology, and toiletry and cosmetics--many of which enjoyed double-digit increases in both ad pages and revenue over last year.
Retail led revenue with a 32.4 percent jump in revenue and a 20.2 percent jump in ad pages. Drugs and remedies followed with 20.1 percent growth in revenue and a 15.9 percent growth in ad pages. Technology was next with a 16.9 percent revenue increase and 13.3 percent more ad pages. Last, toiletries and cosmetics revenue rose 18.2 percent, and ad pages rose 9.9 percent.