Q1 Magazine Advertising Down 26 Percent

by The Editors on April 15, 2009

Img 5302.JpgThe Magazine Publishers of America just released their print advertising numbers for Q1 2009 (Jan. to Mar. 2009 vs. 2008) and as might be expected things are not looking good. On average pages in the titles tracked by the MPA are down 26.1 percent and revenue is down 20.6 percent.

In the action sports magazine space Transworld Media has the only titles tracked and advertising pages were down across the board. Here are Transworld Media advertising page totals for Q1 2009 as reported by the MPA.

                              2009       2008    %Change
TRANSWORLD SKATEBOARDING    304.15     369.17      -17.6
TRANSWORLD SNOWBOARDING     359.48     429.11      -16.2
TRANSWORLD SURF             195.54     279.69      -30.1
RIDE BMX                     75.16      93.34      -19.5
TRANSWORLD MOTOCROSS        244.17     259.04       -5.7

According to the MPA, in the first three months of this year Transworld Media print advertising was down a total of 251.85 pages when compared to the same period in 2008. Assuming that a page in the magazines cost on average $2,500 this drop in ad pages represents about $630,000 in revenue.

On a positive note: when compared to the magazine market in general Transworld’s titles are doing well, about 10 percent ahead of the market in every mag but Transword Surf. So by that metric, things are looking pretty good.

Then again, we don’t think the print advertising market will ever get better.

[Link: Magazine Publishers of America]

{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }

comic book guy April 15, 2009 at 6:57 pm

I never understood how Transworld could offer double the size of thrasher or skateboarder mag in terms of pages, but also have 3/4 of the mag be Ads.

Not only that, they censor all sorts of stuff. Ads are down? Boohoo.

Ashley L. May 13, 2009 at 8:02 am

With the credit crunch in affect i’m not surprised that the revenue is decreased. Although i am surprised at the 10% difference in the market i thought that all the prices would be near enough the same for every magazine on the market.

Ouch July 13, 2009 at 9:32 am

Yowzers, the latest data (Apr-Jun) is even more harsh:

http://www.magazine.org/advertising/revenue/by_mag_title_qtr/20092Q.aspx

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