Fashion titles' September issues bulk up, possibly a good sign for other magazines

Fashion magazines are apparently putting on some weight in all the right places,  possibly heralding a broader recovery in the magazine industry, according to a story in Media in Canada.

 "If Canada's top fashion magazines really are a barometer of the industry's health, the outlook appears to be promising, yet capricious," the story said.

It reports that Fashion magazine's traditionally strong September issue is 206 pages, with ad pages up 18%. Elle Canada's September issue is 250 pages, up 56 pages from last year. Flare magazine's September is down in size by comparison with its blockbuster 30th anniversary issue last year, but still has 232 pages. In June, Flare was up 25% in ad pages, Elle up 47% and Fashion 51%.

"It's almost like we're the foot soldiers, going in and getting really beaten up," says [Lilia] Lozinski, senior vice president of St. Joseph Media,publishers of Fashion. "All the different vertical categories behind us, as soon as they see the fashion category getting hit, it's like ‘batten down the hatches because trouble's coming.' As things slowly start coming around, consumer confidence starts coming back and retail sales start increasing, then basically we're the first ones to recover."