Biz magazines had bad ad sales in September

Most of the major business magazines saw a decrease in advertising revenue in September compared to the same month a year ago, according to statistics on the Magazine Publishers of America web site.

Only Barron’s, The Economist, Fast Company and Inc. showed increases in ad revenue. Barron’s ad sales increased 17.7 percent to $5.9 million in September, while Inc.’s ad sales rose 10.6 percent to $9.6 million in the month. The Economist‘s ad sales jumped 18.6 percent to $10 million, while Fast Company’s ad sales rose 10.7 percent to $2.6 million.

As for the rest of the biz magazines, the results were abysmal. Here are the specifics:

–Business 2.0’s ad revenue fell 7.4 percent to $3.7 million for the month. Its ad sales had been up in August.

—BusinessWeek‘s ad sales fell 8.9 percent to $28.1 million in September after seeing its August ad sales rise 14 percent.

—Forbes reported a 4.2 percent decrease in September ad sales to $30 million. Its ad sales had been up 32.9 percent in August.

—Fortune‘s ad sales fell 28.1 percent to $26.1 million in September after declining 12 percent in August.

–Kiplinger’s ad sales dropped 19 percent to $3.1 million. Its ad sales fell 7.7 percent in August.

—Money magazine dropped 6.6 percent of its ad sales to $12.2 million in September.

–Smart Money fell 5.4 percent to $4.0 million in ad sales.

For comparison, total ad sales for the magazine industry rose 6.5 percent for September. In other words, business magazines are lagging behind their competitors.

Here are the year-to-date totals. For the first nine months of the year, all of the above magazines except BusinessWeek, Fortune and Money have seen an increase in ad revenue.