Revenue from advertising for 14 business magazines fell slightly in both December and in 2006, according to data from the Magazine Publishers of America analyzed by Talking Biz News.
The number of ad pages reported by those 14 business magazines fell by a larger decline than the ad revenue.
Ad revenue for the 14 magazines totaled $1.79 billion in 2006, down less than four-tenths of a percent from $1.80 billion in 2005. The number of ad pages in those biz glossies was 19,915 in 2006, down 2.6 percent from 20,401 the year earlier.
The business mags underperformed the overall magazine industry in both numbers. For the industry, ad revenue rose 4.1 percent to $25.9 billion, while ad pages rose by one-tenth of a percent to 252,121.
In December, ad revenue for the 14 business magazines was $172.7 million, down one-
In other words, the business magazine segment is underperforming the rest of the industry.
For the year, Forbes passed BusinessWeek in terms of ad revenue. Forbes’ ad revenue totaled $341.5 million, up 5.6 percent, while BusinessWeek’s ad revenue fell 6.6 percent $310.4 million. Forbes maintained its lead in ad pages with 3,383, nearly a 1 percent gain.
The best performing magazines for the year were Wired, which saw its ad revenue rise 29 percent to $83.2 million and its ad pages increase 18.1 percent to 1279, and the Economist, whose ad revenue rose 16.7 percent to $84.6 million and its ad pages rose 1.1 percent to 2179. (EDIT: I excluded Wired earlier. It was the top performer.)
In December, the Economist again was the best performer, with ad revenue up 30.1 percent to $8.1 million and ad pages up 11.9 percent to 202.5. Inc. also had a strong December, with ad revenue up 19.7 percent to $7.3 million and ad pages up 17 percent to 75.85.
The December data can be found here, while the 2006 data can be found here.
The 14 magazines whose data was compiled for this report were Business 2.0, BusinessWeek, Economist, Entrepreneur, Fast Company, Forbes, Fortune, Fortune Small Business, Inc., Kiplinger’s Personal Finance, Money, PC Magazine, SmartMoney and Wired.
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According to the data you cite, Wired (which I edit) had the best year--up 29% in revenue and 18% in pages--even better than my alma mater, The Economist. Could you explain how you came to a different conclusion?
Why business mags ad revenue down was on Cramer site summary. I started to feel info overload about 20 years ago;Fortune (biz glamour mag) went; next Business Week - key article read on planes, mag hard to "organize"; Forbes went last - best written, most interesting, decided to appeal to the nouveau riche in volume hard to recycle - lost its roots. WSJ still in the mix and NYT, computer becoming source. Magazines were increasingly late with no more info than newspapers, eventually less than newspapers plus computers. Economist continued until 3 years ago and is back. Tho US version not an improvement, it is written above grade 6 level for the mind as well as emotions,still best weekly. Not to minimize computer role, but it is hard to read in depth, Journal/NYT/Econ do better. IT STRIKES ME wsj/nyt/econ ARE AT 30,000 FEET; BIZ MAGS ARE AT 10,000 FEET ALL TRYING TO BE PEOPLE MAGS; AND INDUSTRY MAGS ARE AT 1000 FEET IF WELL DONE. NO ONE NEEDS OR HAS TIME FOR ALL THREE ANY MORE. i PICK 30,000 AND VERY SELECTIVE 1000 FEET AND COMPUTER COVERS REST EASILY.
there are numerous places in analysis of markets where death valley is in the middle of the sandwich - either be walmart/target or skilled/serviced/focussed local, don't be in the middle. I suspect this is a pattern that on close examination would tell the tale of the business press. None have web site easy to use that allows the web site to lead into mag conveniently; that's is further death for me. hope the ideas add to your search conclusion. stewart gordon