Comments

You have commented 339 times on Rantburg.

Your Name

Your e-mail (optional)

Website (optional)

	My Original Nic Pic-a-Nic Sorry. Comments have been closed on this article.
Foto

Submit your comments on this article

Home Front Economy

Magazine Ad $ down, Time -47.7%, Newsweek -37.6% , Guns & Ammo +7.6%

2009-02-18

MAGAZINES are generally seen as good early warning signs for economic downturns. The thinking is that corporations would rather cut back on ads before they actually have to start cutting back on people.

If that thinking holds, we're in for a long and deep recession.

Tomorrow, Media Industry Newsletter is releasing its report on the first quarter of 2009 and it will show ad pages have tumbled a numbing 21.5 percent for monthlies in the period compared with the first quarter of 2008. (MIN gets early numbers because the March issues are starting to hit newsstands.)

In comparison, in the first quarter of 2008 magazines had just gone negative, dropping 4.6 percent after racking up small gains for most of 2007. Ad pages have now been falling for five straight quarters, MIN reports.

What is most upsetting in the latest wipeout is that virtually no category of magazine is spared. "Never have there been advertising performances so weak that just 13 out of the 160 monthlies are up through the first quarter," MIN reported.

Newsweeklies are decimated. Time is down 47.7 percent through its Feb. 16 issue and Newsweek is down 37.6 percent through the same period. Not surprisingly business/finance titles are bleeding: BusinessWeek is off 34.8 percent; Forbes is down 33.1 percent and Fortune is 24.9 percent below last year.

So what's looking good? Guns & Ammo is up 7.4 percent.

Sexy women? It depends. Penthouse is up 12.3 percent but rival Playboy is down 22.1 percent in ad pages. The red hot Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue, which hit newsstands last week, dwarfs both of them with 203 ad pages, but that's down 28.8 percent from a year ago when it had 285 ad pages. SI reports its online traffic has tripled versus 2008.

General car books are getting hammered as expected with Automobile, Road & Track and Motor Trend all down more than 30 percent, but not everything requiring fuel is sputtering. A few specialized pursuits are making it. Motorcylist is up 9.4 percent and Sport Truck is up 3.3 percent.

One potentially encouraging sign: kids and family seem to be getting more attention. Family Circle is up 5.4 percent, National Geographic Kids is up 1.9 percent while Sports Illustrated Kids is up 29.6 percent.

Posted by:GolfBravoUSMC

#12 Print journalism has been like a plane whose engines have quit. The problem now is the wings are falling off.

Posted by: GolfBravoUSMC 2009-02-18 10:21

#11 Yeah, but think of all the trees that are being saved, along with the homes of all the little woodland critters.

That's why I don't buy Newsleak, etc. I'm doing it for the fluffy bunnies and raccoons!

Posted by: Cornsilk Blondie 2009-02-18 09:44

#10 Obama has certainly been good for gun and ammunition sales. I've seen nothing like in 50 years.

Posted by: Besoeker 2009-02-18 09:19

#9 I suspect Guns & Ammo is down because many of their advertisers are so deeply backlogged in orders that they don't dare advertise.

Ammo makers, especially, are just swamped, with back orders of two years or more. Not just commercial, but military orders as well.

And to make matters worse, the gun control nuts are now focusing on messing with the ammo manufacturers as much as they can.

Posted by: Anonymoose 2009-02-18 09:06

#8 best bellweather comparison I have seen in a long time.

If times are bad -- of course Guns and Ammo are more important.

Posted by: 3dc 2009-02-18 08:45

#7 Think was ad revenue would be if Obama didn't spend $750 million on campaign ads last year.

Posted by: ed 2009-02-18 08:42

#6 Yellow Book getting smaller? [n.b. alternate TP backup since the Sears and Roebuck catalog never not a government bailout].

Posted by: Procopius2k 2009-02-18 08:40

#5 The internet is destroying print of this sort.

"Newsweeklies" are garbage by the time they are printed.

Some openly partisan ones, like ~~Obamaweek~~ ~~Socialstweek~~ Newsweek, have taken an overt lefty tilt and are failing even faster than their tacitly lefty competitors (Time).

I say: Let em die.

Posted by: OldSpook 2009-02-18 08:40

#4 At least Guns & Ammo is useful. You can't even use Time and Newsweak for bungfodder.

Posted by: JohnQC 2009-02-18 08:33

#3 Things be tuff all over. Jet, Ebony Magazine to reorganize.

The ranks of Ebony and Jet magazines have been shaken up, with cuts that include the elimination of the publications' editorial director.

According to a report published Monday on the Web site for the Maynard Institute, an organization dedicated to diversity training in the news media, employees who were cut may be able to apply for new positions.

The company is executing a multi-phase reorganization," according to a statement, of which employees were notified last week.

The company, Johnson Publishing, ranked No. 1 on Crains 2008 list of Chicagos largest minority-owned companies. With $453.3 million in revenue in 2007, the company beat out Oprah Winfreys Harpo Inc.

But Ebony and Jet, which target the African-American community, have struggled amid a turbulent economy and declining print advertising sales throughout the media industry. Ebonys ad sales dropped almost 19% to $14.9 million in 2008, according to Magazine Publishers of America data. Advertising revenue for Jet sank 41% to $5.7 million in 2008.

Posted by: Besoeker 2009-02-18 07:55

#2 "Johnson! You know what we need? Another fullpage adoring cover picture of President Obama!"
"Sir, that will make 47 weeks in a row...."

Posted by: Frank G 2009-02-18 07:21

#1 BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAH...

Posted by: M. Murcek 2009-02-18 05:11

00:00