Biz magazines pushing online ad sales, but not Portfolio

Matthew Karnitschnig of The Wall Street Journal writes Friday that the big three business magazines — BusinessWeek, Forbes and Fortune — are pushing their Web sites more to combat falling ad sales in the print publications — except for Conde Nast Portfolio, which continues to push ad sales in its magazine.

Karnitschnig wrote, “Helping Portfolio has been Condé Nast’s strong relationships with luxury advertisers, an area from which older business magazines have been largely absent. In addition to Portfolio, Condé Nast owns titles such as Vogue, Glamour and Vanity Fair. An estimated 30% of Portfolio’s ad pages have come from the luxury and travel sectors.

“Its competitors say they are unimpressed, noting that Portfolio’s rate base — the circulation it guarantees advertisers — is less than half of the 800,000 to 900,000 copies each of the top three titles boasts. They also suggest Condé Nast is offering advertisers space in Portfolio on discount terms the incumbent titles wouldn’t accept.

“Portfolio President David Carey says the magazine isn’t offering any ‘freebies’ but some advertisers say privately that they are getting other incentives.”

Read more here.