Last year was tough on the magazine industry, with over 400 titles going online only or ceasing publication entirely. Ad pages aren’t rebounding yet, and it looks like 2010 will be another challenging year. However the numbers are slightly better – meaning they’re not quite as bad as last year – and that may be the best we can expect.
Media Industry Newsletter (via Mediapost.com) found that total ad pages for April were basically flat with a 0.04% decline compared to April 2009. This tiny decline helped offset worse numbers in the first quarter; ad pages over the first four months of the year are off 3.17% over last year.
The good news in these numbers is that the declines were concentrated in a relatively small number of titles and ad pages for many titles were up, some by double digits. Forty-three percent of titles accounted for the April declines. Last year, MIN’s monthly figures regularly showed more than 80% of the magazines experiencing declines.
Wednesday, Mar 24, 2010
Michelle OBrien