Bad summer for business magazines

Ten out of 16 business magazines reported a decline in ad dollars for the three months ended Sept. 30, and 14 out of 16 reported a decline in ad pages during the same time period, according to data released from the Magazine Publishers of America.

Only Barron’s, The Economist, Fast Company, Forbes, Money and Smart Money reported an increase in ad dollars for the three-month period, while only Fast Company and Smart Money reported an increase in ad pages.

Fast Company reported a 22.6 percent increase in ad dollars to $7 million and a 15.6 percent increase in ad pages to nearly 99 pages during the time period, according to data analyzed by Talking Biz News. Smart Money reported a 20.6 percent increase in ad dollars to $13.9 million and a 14.4 percent increase in ad pages to 172.5.

Among the worst performers for the three-month period was Business 2.0, which reported a 36 percent decrease in ad dollars to $7.8 million and a 40 percent drop in ad pages to 113.5. Parent Time Inc. shut the magazine after the October issue.

Among the big business magazines, BusinessWeek and Fortune had sharp declines. BusinessWeek reported a 19.1 percent drop in ad dollars to $53.8 million and a 24.6 percent decrease in ad pages to 443.2, while Fortune posted a 14.4 percent decline in ad dollars to $54.4 million and a 21.1 percent decline in ad pages to 480.2.

In comparison, Forbes posted an 11 percent rise in ad dollars to $69.7 million and a drop of less than 1 percent in ad pages to 609.8.

See all of the data here.