The historic decline in consumer magazine ad pages continued in the third quarter of 2009, down 26.6% with a revenue drop-off of 18.6% compared to the same quarter last year, according to new figures from the Publishers Information Bureau (PIB).
Not surprisingly, a backbone of general interest advertising, the automotive category, led the drop, with its spending down 46.1% from the same quarter in 2008. Close behind, the financial/insurance and real estate segments were off 43.1%. Toiletries/cosmetics (-10%), food (+3/9%) and drugs (-10.8%) were more resilient than most other categories. On a year-to-date basis, however, every ad category is off by at least 10%, with most down 20% or more from the first nine months of 2008.
Despite the overall gloominess of another down quarter, some titles continue to thrive in tough times. In the year of recession-inspired cocooning, it comes as no surprise that family-oriented titles and women’s service books fared best overall. National Geographic Kids showed a 76.3% ad-page gain in the quarter, followed by the continuing success story of Family Circle (+31.5%), Scholastic Parent & Child (+16.9%) and Fine Cooking (+14.5%). The celebrity books such as People Style Watch (+20.1%), Soap Opera Digest (+13.7%) and OK Weekly (+13.5%) enjoyed gains as well.
We Love Soaps created the table below using data from the PIB website showing the data (as of October 9, 2009) for Digest along with TV Guide and Entertainment Weekly. The latter two continue to struggle.
July - September 2009 vs 2008 (3Q)
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