The history of personal finance titles is one of riding the cycles of the stock market, with ad pages rising as investors become active in the market and falling when the market tanks and investors move their money elsewhere.
   So with the economy on the mend and the stock market recovering, it was only a matter of time before the investor titles saw a return of advertisers. But when? The category seemed to defy recovery for so long.
   That's no longer the case. Over recent months, the category has seen a steady rise in ad pages, and this month that trend continues, led by Barron's, with pages up 21.1 percent year to date after finishing 2003 off by more than 10 percent, according to the latest figures from the Publishers Information Bureau for March.
  Also up are Money, whose pages are up 11.3 percent so far this year, and Smart Money, whose pages have increased 8.7 percent. 
   Overall, the personal finance category shows only a modest gain of 0.8 percent in ad pages, but that number is dragged down by the folding of Worth last year. Excluding Worth, the category would be up 11.5 percent in pages year to date, making it the fastest-growing of the 19 categories tracked by Media Life.
   Overall, consumer magazines were down yet another month in ad pages year-to-date, according to PIB, off 2.3 percent from the same three-month period of 2003. Comparing this March to last, ad pages were down 1.9 percent. Year-to-date ad revenues based on rate card tallies were up 7 percent, while March revenues were up 6.7 percent.  Of the 19 categories followed by Media Life, 10 showed ad page gains year to date and nine showed declines.