Magazines hurting for ads but research shows their audiences are UP

Financial sector advertisers may be in meltdown and ad pages may be down, but according to first half figures from Mediamark Research and Intelligence (MRI), U.S. consumer magazine audiences are up. That's right. Up.

According to a story in MediaDaily News, a comparison of MRI data for 95 leading consumer magazines shows that 74% increased their audience between spring 2007 and spring 2008, for a total increase of 4.3%. The remaining 25 titles were flat or experienced only moderate drops.