Magazine Ad Pages Post Slight Gain in First Quarter of 2007
Tech and financial services categories still lagging.
adapted from Publishers Information Bureau data

Total magazine rate-card-reported advertising revenue for the first quarter of 2007 increased nearly seven percent compared to the first quarter of last year, according to Publishers Information Bureau (PIB). Ad pages, which totaled 52,154.49 for PIB measured magazines, were up one percent from January through March, 2006.

Total PIB revenue for the month of March 2007 increased 8.8 percent compared to last year, closing at $2,282,204,898. Ad pages totaled 22,388.48, up two percent from March 2006.

First Quarter 2007 vs. 2006

From January through March of 2007, half of the major advertising categories posted both PIB revenue and page gains, including Drugs & Remedies; Food & Food Products; Direct Response; Retail; Media & Advertising; and Public Transportation, Hotels & Resorts. Three categories posted double-digit dollar increases: Drugs & Remedies (20.4%); Retail (19.5%); and Food & Food Products (11.7%). Drugs & Remedies pages also grew 13.7 percent over first quarter of last year.

However, the slump in technology and financial services advertising continued with Tech pages down 6.8 percent from the first quarter of 2006 and Financial Services, which includes Real Estate, down 10.8 percent from a comparable period last year.

Q1 2007 vs. 2006 Details
 
CLASS NAME
2007
PAGES
2006
PAGES
%
CHG
DRUGS & REMEDIES
4,445.39
3,910.42
13.7
RETAIL
4,035.22
3,693.86
9.2
FOOD & FOOD PRODUCTS
3,002.08
2,797.83
7.3
DIRECT RESPONSE COMPANIES
4,560.95
4,402.61
3.6
MEDIA & ADVERTISING
2,992.62
2,920.54
2.5
PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION, HOTELS & RESORTS
3,307.57
3,228.10
2.5
TOILETRIES & COSMETICS
3,412.56
3,449.46
-1.1
APPAREL & ACCESSORIES
5,577.08
5,646.42
-1.2
TECHNOLOGY
2,335.78
2,507.06
-6.8
FINANCIAL, INSURANCE & REAL ESTATE
2,784.57
3,122.32
-10.8
HOME FURNISHINGS & SUPPLIES
2,483.12
2,937.58
-15.5

“Magazine advertising held steady in the first quarter of 2007, with strong contributions from Drugs & Remedies, Food & Food Products, and Retail—categories that showed the largest growth during the period,” said Ellen Oppenheim, Executive Vice President/Chief Marketing Officer, Magazine Publishers of America.

“Finance and Home experienced the most softness during the first quarter. And Automotive, while down in pages, experienced some positive shifts within the category, with dealerships overall and some manufacturers and suppliers spending more,” remarked Ms. Oppenheim.

Expanded PIB information is available at www.magazine.org/PIB.

Important Reporting Change

Effective second quarter, PIB will be reported quarterly, it was announced today by Wayne Eadie, President, PIB, and SVP of Research, MPA. The next PIB release will be available in July, showing magazine advertising data for the second quarter and first half of 2007.

“A quarterly report conforms to how other media release revenue information,” said Mr. Eadie.

“This is the right step for magazines since quarterly reporting provides a much more meaningful timeframe for analyzing advertising category trends than a single month could ever provide,” said Susan Nathan, SVP, Director of Media Research, Universal McCann.