Pinch being felt by U.S. mag publishers, down 9.2% in pages through August

Through August, consumer magazine total ad pages in the U.S. are down 9.2%. According to a story in MediaDaily News, based on counts from the Publishers Information Bureau, virtually all major publishers are feeling the pinch. Of 37 big publishing groups measured by TNS Media Intelligence, 86% have seen pages fall. The average decliners were down 14%.

Some publishers* such as Rodale (Men's Health, Women's Health) and Bauer Publishing (InTouch, Life & Style) are basically flat. The Economist was up 8.5%. National Geographic was up 2% and Mansueto Ventures (Fast Company, Inc.) had an 11.1% jump

Four publishers experienced moderate declines of just 2%-4%: Ad pages are down 3.2% at American Expressing Publishing (Travel + Leisure, Food & Wine); 2.4% at Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia (Martha Stewart Living, Everyday Food); 2.7% at New York Media Holdings (New York Magazine); and 2.6% at Dow Jones, co-publisher of SmartMoney.

Thus endeth the good news.

In the top 10 publishers, ad pages are down 7.8% at Conde Nast (publisher of Vogue, GQ); 9.3% at Time Inc. (Time, People); 4.5% at Hearst (Good Housekeeping, Cosmopolitan); 7.3% at Bonnier (Popular Science, Field & Stream); 9.5% at Hachette Filipacchi (Elle, Car and Driver); 15.9% at Meredith (Better Homes and Gardens, Ladies' Home Journal); 4.5% at American Media (Star, Men's Fitness); and 20.4% at Source Interlink (Motor Trend, Soap Opera Weekly).

There were some alarming declines in the lower tiers: Ad pages are down 37% at Alpha Media Group (Maxim, Blender), 33.6% at U.S. News Publishing (U.S. News and World Report), 20.1% at Forbes, Inc. (Forbes, ForbesLife), and 19.4% at the Washington Post Company (, Arthur Frommer's Budget Travel).

*The data is for the group; the titles are just some of their better known.