After a decent 2004, the newsweeklies reversed course early last year, their ad pages sinking back to recession levels when several key advertising categories cut back budgets.
Now, just about a year later, those categories are returning to the newsweeklies, and the weekly titles are showing signs of recovery.
For sure, the signs are faint. As a category the newsweeklies are up less than 1 pecent in ad pages through the first two months of 2006, according to the Publishers Information Bureau. But that's a vast improvement when compared to last year's 6 percent drop in pages over the prior year.
"It's a good sign for everyone," Newsweek publisher Greg Osberg tells Media Life. And among the three leading titles, it's an even better sign for Newsweek, which is up 19.1 percent in ad pages the first two months.
By comparison, U.S. News & World Report saw a modest gain of 3.2 percent in pages, and Time actually slipped slightly, by 2.9 percent, for the period.
Still, digging deeper into the numbers, it appears to be a case of a rising tide of advertising lifting all boats.
As Newsweek's Osberg explains it, the category was hurt in 2005 by a pullback in major ad categories, most notably in pharmaceuticals. That's a huge category for the weekly titles. Says Osberg: "That impacted us a lot."
But now the drug companies are coming back, says Osberg, after several court decisions over the safety of their products came down in their favor.
Through the first two months all three major newsweeklies ran more pharmaceutical ad pages than for the same period the year earlier. Newsweek showed the strongest gains, with drug ad pages up nearly 80 percent, according to competitive data from LNA, a Miami consulting agency.
LNA numbers also show a dramatic turnaround in the number of ad pages from automakers. After tumbling about 25 percent in 2005, carmakers may in fact be returning to the newsweekles. At the least, the cuts have eased, with automotive ad pages down just slightly from a year ago.
A third big category to cut back in 2005 was technology, with pages tumbling just over 13 percent for the year. That's changed dramatically in 2006. Tech ad pages through February were up almost 25 percent compared to a year ago, according to LNA.
Newsweek's Osberg says newsweeklies are also seeing a spurt of ad pages from energy companies hoping to capitalize on a growing interest in alternative fuels, though he's says the category is not a major one. Says he: "They all want to attach themselves to the development of alternative energy sources. They all want to be associated with it."
Meanwhile, says Osberg, the emphasis among the newsweeklies must be on integrating platforms, print and online, to make the titles more attractive to advertisers and readers.
"We need to listen to what consumers are looking for," Osberg says. "They're looking for integrated solutions, they want to see it all integrated." Osberg says 30 percent of Newsweek's print ads are now integrated with the online version of the magazine.
And in any case, he contends the newsweeklies must be selling the very idea of the value of the weekly pubications.
"We're big believers in selling the relevance of the category, and even magazines in general, before we get into our individual attributes."
