Economist shows strong ad sales in first quarter

Diego Vasquez of Media Life Magazine writes about magazines that have bucked the downward cycle in ad sales in the first three months of 2008 and focuses on The Economist.

Vasquez writes, “They’re heeding an age-old maxim of magazine publishing: Invest during downturns, as others cut back, and you’ll win market share.

“In some ways, the Economist best exemplifies this aggressiveness. The title competes in two of the roughest ad categories, newsweeklies and business titles, which were each down nearly 14 percent over the quarter, yet its ad pages were up more than 5 percent.

“For that, North American publisher Paul Rossi credits the magazine’s ongoing push to build circulation in the U.S. market, which rose 13 percent in second-half 2007, to 720,882, over the year-earlier period, according to the Audit Bureau of Circulations.

“Circulation helps push up our rate base, which is good, but what it really does is grow the readership numbers,” he says.”

Read more here.