Biz magazine ad revenue declined 22% in 2009, ad pages dropped 28.7%

TALKING BIZ NEWS EXCLUSIVE

Advertising in 15 business magazines in 2009 fell by $340 million, or 21.7 percent, to $1.23 billion, due to the lingering recession, according to a Talking Biz News analysis of numbers released Tuesday by the Publishers Information Bureau.

Advertising pages in those same 15 magazines fell by 28.7 to 12,844.59 pages, according to the data. The numbers exclude Conde Nast Portfolio, which closed in late April.

Not one of the 15 remaining business glossied reported an increase in ad revenue or ad pages for the year, and the biz magazine sector fared worse than the overall magazine industry, which posted an 18.1 percent decline in ad revenue and a 25.6 percent drop in ad pages. Since 2006, the business magazine field has lost more than $650 million in revenue and nearly 10,000 ad pages.

The worst performing business magazine in 2009 in terms of ad revenue was Inc., which lost 46.4 percent, down to $46.6 million. The worst performing magazine for the year in terms of lost ad pages was Wired, down 39.6 percent to 694.37 pages.

Forbes magazine remained No. 1 in terms of advertising revenue, but its ad revenue fell 25.6 percent to $251.5 million.

And it lost its top spot in terms of of ad pages. Forbes ad pages fell 30.2 percent to 1937.14, while the Economist saw its ad pages fall 20.2 percent to 1970.55.

Among the other large biz titles, BusinessWeek — which was sold last year to Bloomberg LP — reported a 31.2 percent drop in ad revenue to $162.4 million and a 33.8 percent fall in ad pages to 1,247.01. Fortune magazine reported similar numbers with a 33.9 percent drop in ad revenue to $182.9 million and a 36 percent decline in ad pages to 1,523.98.

The Economist was the best performing in terms of ad revenue, dropping 12.8 percent to $114.7 million. Entrepreneur magazine was the best performing in terms of ad pages, dropping 18.3 percent to 852.33 pages.