Consumer magazine advertising pages dropped 11.7 percent in 2008 when compared to 2007, according to year-end figures released by the Publishers Information Bureau late Tuesday.
The drop in advertising accelerated in the fourth quarter, as pages slid more than 17 percent.
“Like other ad-supported media, magazines have been affected by the economic slump, which deepened as 2008 progressed,” Ellen Oppenheim, the Magazine Publishers of America’s executive vice president said in statement. “Advertiser decisions for the fourth quarter were influenced by a range of factors. For longer-lead time monthlies, consumers cut spending during the summer due to soaring energy prices, which caused advertisers to put buy fewer ads in year-end magazine issues. In the fall and early winter, rising unemployment and steep stock market declines led to restrained ad spending in weekly titles.”
The drop followed three years of flatness, and was by far the worst slide since before 1999, the earliest year comparative PIB numbers are available.
And the hemorrhaging in 2008 was widespread. Each of the top 12 magazine advertising categories (which account for more than 85 percent of total advertising spending) declined in both full-year and fourth quarter 2008, and the declines were seen in both PIB revenues and pages. The most significant decreases were seen in the most beleaguered of sectors: automotive; home furnishings and financial, insurance and real estate sectors.
Among individual titles and magazine categories there were few, if any, bright spots.
Magazines that saw the biggest ad page declines in 2008 include Home (-37.9), the Sporting News (-34.2 percent), Saturday Evening Post (-33.5 percent), Soap Opera Digest (-31.5), Motor Boating (-31), Blender (-30.6) and More (-30.3).
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