U.S. mag ad pages down in first half, but apparent dollars up

Some commentators are puzzling over the fact that the first half U.S. Publishers Information Bureau data about magazine ad pages and dollars shows pages down but dollars up. Total magazine advertising pages declined 0.5% through the first six months of 2007, but total advertising revenues climbed 6.1% for the same period.

Of course this dollar data is based on published rate card prices and is always an inflated amount. MediaDaily News says in a posting that the PIB's ad revenue estimates are probably in line line with consumer magazine ad tracking from other sources

In late June, the Universal McCann estimated that U.S. consumer magazine ad spending was up about 4.1% through the first quarter of 2007, and would like rise 4.0% for the year to $13.595 billion.

Also in June, TNS MI released data indicating that consumer magazines were the fastest-growing "non-digital" consumer ad medium. In an analysis of the TNS MI data by the Magazine Publishers of America indicated that magazines grew faster than any medium except for the Internet during the first quarter of the year, and picked up about a percentage point of total U.S. advertising spending.