• by Erik Sass  @eriksass1, September 11, 2008

The consumer magazine business, in a rough patch before, now appears to be falling off a cliff.

Total magazine ad pages measured by the Publishers Information Bureau are down 9.2% through August, compared to the same period last year. Virtually all the major publishers are feeling the pinch. Of 37 big publishing groups measured by TNS Media Intelligence, 32 or 86% have seen ad pages fall. For the 32 publishers that are experiencing declines, the average decline was 14% for the year-to-date.

At this stage, it's actually easier to say who isn't losing lots of ad pages. (The magazines listed here are not necessarily the source of increases or decreases in ad pages, but the best-known titles from each group.)

Among the top 10 publishers as ranked by ad pages, Rodale (Men's Health, Women's Health) is basically flat with a 1.6% decline. In the next tier, Bauer Publishing (InTouch, Life & Style) is also basically flat with a 1.2% increase, while the Economist is up 8.5%. In the third tier, the National Geographic Society is up 2%, and Mansueto Ventures (Fast Company, Inc.) continues to defy gravity with an 11.1% jump. Among the smaller publishers, MacDonald Communications, publisher of Working Mother, is up 14.4%.

Four publishers experienced moderate declines of just 2%-4%: Ad pages are down 3.2% at American Express Publishing (Travel + Leisure, Food & Wine); 2.4% at Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia (Martha Stewart Living, Everyday Food); 2.7% at New York Media Holdings (New York Magazine); and 2.6% at Dow Jones, co-publisher of SmartMoney.

Thus ends the good news.

In the top 10 publishers, ad pages are down 7.8% at Conde Nast (publisher of Vogue, GQ); 9.3% at Time Inc. (Time, People); 4.5% at Hearst (Good Housekeeping, Cosmopolitan); 7.3% at Bonnier (Popular Science, Field & Stream); 9.5% at Hachette Filipacchi (Elle, Car and Driver); 15.9% at Meredith (Better Homes and Gardens, Ladies' Home Journal); 4.5% at American Media (Star, Men's Fitness); and 20.4% at Source Interlink (Motor Trend, Soap Opera Weekly).

There were some alarming declines in the lower tiers: Ad pages are down 37% at Alpha Media Group (Maxim, Blender), 33.6% at U.S. News Publishing (U.S. News and World Report), 20.1% at Forbes, Inc. (Forbes, ForbesLife), and 19.4% at the Washington Post Company (Arthur Frommer's Budget Travel).

Ad pages were also down 11.8% at custom publisher Pace Communications (United Hemispheres, US Airways Magazine); 8.4% at Readers' Digest Association (Reader's Digest, Every Day with Rachael Ray); 13.2% at Walt Disney Publications (Family Fun, Wondertime); 12.9% at Johnson Publishing (Ebony, Jet) and 15.4% at McGraw Hill (BusinessWeek).