They're doing markedly better than their competitors
By Louisa Ada Seltzer Jan 14, 2010
The pattern would seem to be as old as magazines themselves.
Titles in a particular category would rise and fall depending largely on whether their particular categories of advertisers, be it automotive or home furnishings or movies, were spending or cutting back. And of course magazines as a whole would rise and fall with the general health of the ad economy.
That changed some with the internet. Coming out of the last recession, it became clear that certain categories of magazines, notably business titles and newsweeklies, were not coming back as their advertisers shifted more and more dollars to the web and elsewhere.
Now, from the depths of this recession, another pattern appears to be emerging, and it speaks to the ongoing shakeout as more and more titles ponder whether to close or continue slugging it out for diminishing ad dollars.
This emerging pattern, visible in the year-ad page numbers from Publishers Information Bureau, is of certain titles within categories tracking much better page numbers than their competitors.
Together the 250-some titles tracked by PIB lost of a quarter of their ad pages over the course of 2009, making it probably the worst year for magazines ever as publishers struggled against the recession and the flight of readers and ad dollars to the internet.
And yet a dozen and some titles actually reported gains in pages, and they were spread across a wide range of categories. A number of other titles reported page losses that were far less severe than those of their competitors.
In the entertainment/celebrity category, in which a shakeout has long been expected, total ad pages were down 8 percent, which is a pretty decent showing against categories where pages fell 30 percent or more.
But much of the credit for that goes to three titles: OK! Weekly, People and Us Weekly. People, the category leader, reported a 1.6 percent drop in pages, to 3,367.20, while Us was down 4.6 percent, to 1,712.4. OK! actually reported a 20 percent gain in pages.
By contrast, Entertainment Weekly, which many media people expect to go online only, was down 20.6 percent, while In Touch and Life & Style were off 21.9 percent and 24.9 percent, respectively, and TV Guide fell 24.4 percent.
In music, Rolling Stone took a big hit in pages in 2009, falling 19.1 percent, but that's way better than its competitors, both of which folded last year. Vibe was off 67.1 percent after closing in July and Blender fell 86.6 percent after closing in April. (Vibe has since been revived and put out an issue last month.)
In the newsweeklies, ad pages for the category were down 27.4 percent, but one title, The Week, actually reported a gain in pages for the year, an increase of 9.5 percent.
Longtime leader Time was down 17.4 percent, while Newsweek fell 25.9 percent and U.S. News tumbled 81.3 percent after going to a monthly frequency.
In women's service, the older titles have continued to hold up well, and that's buoyed the category against steeper declines by the likes of Martha Stewart Living and O, the Oprah Magazine. Overall, the category was down 7.8 percent, the least of any category.
Better Homes & Gardens was actually up in pages by 2.1 percent, and Family Circle rose 11 percent, while Ladies' Home Journal was up 3.1 percent. More, a sister publication to LHJ, was up 1.2 percent.
Martha Stewart Living was down 17.7 percent and O fell 26.1 percent.
Among the shelter titles, which fell 40.2 percent, Traditional Home did quite well compared to its competitors, declining 6.7 percent, while Country Living fell 11.7 percent and House Beautiful was off 16.4 percent in pages.
Among the epicurean titles, one stood out, Saveur, which reported a 12.6 gain in ad pages. That category was down 21 percent overall.
Automotive Full year 2009 vs. 2008
Titles
2009
$s
2008 $s
%
chnge
'09
pages
'08
pages
%
chnge
AUTOMOBILE MAGAZINE
50,097,874
73,024,510
-31.4
510.97
799.42
-36.1
AUTOWEEK
168,590,205
204,744,583
-17.7
805.98
1,031.03
-21.8
CAR AND DRIVER
168,590,205
204,744,583
-17.7
805.98
1,031.03
-21.8
HOT ROD
55,316,379
63,552,017
-13.0
532.50
638.16
-16.6
MOTOR TREND
119,595,219
170,104,700
-29.7
722.32
1,096.40
-34.1
ROAD & TRACK
98,112,888
126,185,293
-22.2
799.46
1,086.33
-26.4
TOTALS
660,302,770
842,355,686
-21.6
4,177.21
5,682.37
-26.5
Source: PIB
Entertainment/Celebrity Full year 2009 vs. 2008
Titles
2009
$s
2008 $s
%
chnge
'09
pages
'08
pages
%
chnge
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY
160,003,296
191,984,199
-16.7
965.87
1,216.39
-20.6
IN TOUCH WEEKLY
92,279,779
136,093,942
-32.2
854.90
1,094.19
-21.9
LIFE & STYLE WEEKLY
19,377,548
32,518,815
-40.4
383.82
510.97
-24.9
OK WEEKLY
73,704,094
61,241,950
20.3
903.82
748.74
20.7
PEOPLE
933,135,770
899,401,498
3.8
3,367.20
3,422.23
-1.6
STAR
161,887,182
169,274,582
-4.4
1,131.40
1,173.24
-3.6
TV GUIDE
127,033,674
196,376,202
-35.3
724.73
958.15
-24.4
US WEEKLY
310,685,632
308,831,664
0.6
1,712.41
1,794.45
-4.6
TOTALS
1,878,106,975
1,995,722,852
-5.9
10,044.15
10,918.36
-8.0
Source: PIB
Music Full year 2009 vs. 2008
Titles
2009
$s
2008 $s
%
chnge
'09
pages
'08
pages
%
chnge
BLENDER*
7,737,017
51,699,388
-85.0
70.20
522.07
-86.6
ROLLING STONE
157,852,251
184,981,608
-14.7
932.27
1,152.42
-19.1
SPIN
26,601,026
35,774,178
-25.6
462.70
656.63
-29.5
VIBE*
25,927,392
77,537,982
-66.6
260.94
792.16
-67.1
TOTALS
218,117,686
349,993,156
-37.7
1,726.11
3,123.28
-44.7
Source: PIB
*folded last year
Teen magazines Full year 2009 vs. 2008
Titles
2009
$s
2008 $s
%
chnge
'09
pages
'08
pages
%
chnge
J-14
6,330,991
7,271,539
-12.9
197.03
236.32
-16.6
SEVENTEEN
95,042,466
99,908,300
-4.9
730.29
816.69
-10.6
TEEN VOGUE
83,169,875
110,274,993
-24.6
748.42
1,109.78
-32.6
TOTALS
184,543,332
217,454,832
-15.1
1,675.74
2,162.79
-22.5
Source: PIB
Women's service/beauty Full year 2009 vs. 2008
Titles
2009
$s
2008 $s
%
chnge
'09
pages
'08
pages
%
chnge
ALLURE
147,014,262
197,230,064
-25.5
1,156.29
1,660.13
-30.3
COSMOPOLITAN
344,916,730
383,636,204
-10.1
1,391.01
1,628.09
-14.6
GLAMOUR
289,543,276
333,749,647
-13.2
1,507.62
1,831.19
-17.7
MARIE CLAIRE
133,616,095
141,983,156
-5.9
1,124.57
1,272.46
-11.6
TOTALS
915,090,363
1,056,599,071
-13.4
5,179.49
6,391.87
-19.0
Source: PIB
Fashion Full year 2009 vs. 2008
Titles
2009
$s
2008 $s
%
chnge
'09
pages
'08
pages
%
chnge
ELLE
273,775,035
325,481,066
-15.9
2,082.89
2,623.24
-20.6
HARPER'S BAZAAR
171,420,282
220,390,303
-22.2
1,522.61
2,066.28
-26.3
IN STYLE
326,414,678
363,511,028
-10.2
2,312.19
2,749.10
-15.9
LUCKY
137,122,669
178,009,622
-23.0
1,241.61
1,696.68
-26.8
TOWN & COUNTRY
76,496,737
138,806,670
-44.9
894.28
1,644.28
-45.6
VOGUE
289,137,936
395,775,334
-26.9
1,988.97
2,890.00
-31.2
W
92,871,637
163,182,314
-43.1
1,051.79
1,939.19
-45.8
TOTALS
1,367,238,974
1,785,156,337
-23.4
11,094.34
15,608.77
-28.9
Source: PIB
Travel Full year 2009 vs. 2008
Titles
2009
$s
2008 $s
%
chnge
'09
pages
'08
pages
%
chnge
ARTHUR FROMMERS BDGT TRVL
26,386,009
30,974,454
-14.8
477.83
617.25
-22.6
CONDE NAST TRAVELER
110,988,590
177,803,468
-37.6
965.25
1,635.85
-41.0
DEPARTURES
50,329,834
87,204,877
-42.3
596.40
1,082.69
-44.9
ENDLESS VACATION
13,777,526
12,930,606
6.5
165.75
162.48
2.0
NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC TRVLR
27,856,674
41,448,108
-32.8
372.78
589.41
-36.8
TRAVEL+ LEISURE
121,608,527
150,879,874
-19.4
1,126.34
1,481.11
-24.0
TOTALS
350,947,160
501,241,387
-30.0
3,704.35
5,568.79
-33.5
Source: PIB
General Interest & Lifestyle Full year 2009 vs. 2008
