A big part of that hurt comes from cutbacks in spending by the big automakers, which have been far more severe for the black titles, at just over 19 percent, according to Black Magazine Monitor, which tracks ad spending in African American titles.

By contrast, the major consumer titles as tracked by Publishers Information Bureau, which includes some black titles, have seen a 10.9 percent drop in automotive ad dollars this year.

“A large part of the decline in the African-American category can be attributed to the drop in automotive advertising,” says Carlos Pelay, president of the Media Economics Group, which puts out the Black Magazine Monitor tracking advertising in African American magazines.

But, almost as a double whammy, the black titles aren't seeing the boost from drug advertising of the mainstream titles, where spending through November is up 18 percent, more than making up for the declines in automotive. It's now the No. 1 category in both ad pages and ad dollars spent year to date for consumer magazines overall.

In the black titles, the pharmaceutical category is significantly smaller, ranking No. 11, and spending has actually declined 2 percent this year.

For the month of November, ad pages for the major black titles were down 8 percent, to 1,274, versus the the 5 percent year-to-date decline, to 11,064 pages.

But weaker automotive spending is not the only problem besetting black titles. There was also the ongoing turmoil at the Source, the hip-hop music title. That title has been plagued by charges of sexual harassment by top executives and tax evasion, among others, and its pages have plummeted as a result, falling almost 50 percent since last year, according to Pelay.
 
Conceived by two white Harvard students in 1988 as a xeroxed newsletter, the Source grew into the leader in the hip-hop genre before tumbling into bankruptcy with debts of $4.3 million.

Subtracting the declines at the Source, the black titles as a group would have been down only 1.1 percent, says Pelay.

Through November, ad pages declined at virtually all the black magazines tracked by the Black Magazine Monitor. Two exception were Sister 2 Sister, which increased by 45.4 percent, and Vibe Vixen, which went up 105.2 percent. Vibe Vixen’s high figures partially can be attributed to increasing its publishing frequency from semi-annual to quarterly.

Launches include the men’s magazine Liquid, along with Fatherhood, Hip Hop Weekly and the relaunch of Heart & Soul.

Ad categories with notable spending increases through November include hair care, 37.9 percent, apparel and accessories, 36.1 percent, cosmetics, 33.2 percent, skin care, 88.1 percent, and household supplies, 16.1 percent. Food products declined by 27.1 percent.