The Q1 2012 numbers from the Association of Magazine Media (formerly the Magazine Publishers of America) seem to suggest that there is no bottom to the magazine advertising slide.
While we’re getting tired of saying this we’ll say it one more time: As Transworld Media is the only action sports company whose print advertising is tracked by the MPA we’ll run their numbers and use them as the harbinger for the rest of the action sports print business.
2011 2012 % CHG Transworld Skateboarding 209.12 193.51 -7.5 Transworld Surf 181.76 167.55 -7.8 Transworld Wakeboarding 43.00 46.68 -7.9 Transworld Motocross 242.99 214.89 -11.6 Transworld Snowboarding 308.41 266.33 -13.6 Transworld Ride BMX 84.50 66.91 -20.8
Overall magazine advertising was down 8.2 percent for the quarter so Skateboarding, Surf, and Wakeboarding were ahead of the market. The other titles were decidedly not.
Advertising in Transworld’s parent company Bonnier Corp magazines (that are tracked by the MPA) were down 9.5 percent (excluding Transworld titles) while Transworld titles were down 11.5 percent over all in Q1 vs. 2011.
Brands that are still buying ads in print must be making publishers so happy, but from the looks of this they are becoming less enthusiastic. No worries though. There’s always the Internet where advertising was up 22 percent in 2011.
To look back on past Boardistan coverage of action print advertising numbers click here.
[Link: Association of Magazine Media]
