Biz magazines outperform industry in third quarter

TALKING BIZ NEWS EXCLUSIVE

The 14 business magazines that report advertising data to the Publishers Information Bureau outperformed the rest of the magazine industry, according to data released Monday that was analyzed by Talking Biz News.

The magazines reported a 7.9 percent increase in advertising revenue and a 5.4 percent rise in advertising pages. That compares to a 5.3 percent increase in ad revenue and a 3.6 percent increase in ad pages for the overall magazine industry.

Only Bloomberg Businessweek and Fortune reported declines in advertising revenue and ad pages for the quarter. The biggest gains were recorded by Black Enterprise, which saw a 39.9 percent jump in ad revenue to $8.25 million and a 45 percent increase in ad pages to 179.77 for the quarter, and Wired, which recorded a 45.8 percent increase in ad revenue to $20.9 million and a 32.8 percent increase in ad pages to 211.06.

Fortune retained its position as the business magazine with the most ad revenue — it had $50.8 million for the quarter. But The Economist sold the most ad pages, passing Fortune during the quarter. It sold 405.48 pages, compared to 398.44 pages for Fortune.

Forbes reported the strongest gains among the big players in the sector. It had a 6.9 percent increase in ad revenue to $42.4 million and a 0.7 percent increase in ad pages to 305.78.

By comparison, Bloomberg Businessweek reported a 5.2 percent drop in ad revenue to $33 million and a 9.3 percent drop in ad pages to 244.64. Fortune reported a 2.3 percent drop in ad revenue and an 8.5 percent decline in ad pages.

Among the personal finance magazines, Money reported the biggest increase in ad revenue — up 7.6 percent to $30.2 million — while Kiplinger’s Personal Finance had the biggest gain in ad pages — up 2.5 percent to 64.31.

Barron’s recorded strong gains as well. Its ad revenue rose 22.5 percent to $10.8 million, and its ad pages rose 16.2 percent to 229.34.

See all of the data here.