March good for biz magazines, bad for personal finance titles

March saw an increase almost across the board for mainstream business magazines in terms of ad revenue and ad pages, but decreases for the personal finance glossy titles, according to data from the Magazine Publishers of America.

Leading the way was Inc. magazine, which saw a 39.3 percent increase in ad revenue to $7.5 million and a 34.5 percent jump in ad pages. Right behind it were Barron’s and The Economist, which saw increases in ad revenue of 29.7 percent and 25.4 percent, respectively. Barron’s ad revenue jumped to nearly $6 million, while the Economist was at $10.9 million. Barron’s ad pages rose 19 percent, while the Economist’s ad pages rose 12 percent.

Among other business magazines:

— BusinessWeek saw a 2.3 percent increase in ad revenue to $24.9 million for March, but a 4.5 percent decrease in ad pages;

— Fast Company saw a 6.7 percent increase in ad revenue and a 2.7 percent increase in ad pages;

— Forbes saw an 18.3 percent increase in ad revenue to $31.7 million, but only a 1.7 percent rise in ad pages;

— Fortune saw a 2.5 percent increase in ad revenue to $24.3 million, but a 5.3 percent decline in ad pages.

In addition, Wired was up 3.1 percent in ad revenue but down 6.4 percent in ad pages. Business 2.0 was down 1.5 percent in ad revenue and off 7.5 percent in ad pages compared to March 2006.

The personal finance magazines fared the worst. Kiplinger’s saw an 18.2 percent drop in ad revenue and a 19.8 percent drop in ad pages compared to March 2006, while Money magazine was down 14.1 percent in ad revenue and 22.8 percent in ad pages. Smart Money was off 17.2 percent in ad revenue and 20.8 percent in ad pages.

All of these numbers take on greater significance starting Monday with the first issue of new business magazine Conde Nast Portfolio hitting New York newsstands. How it fares in the market — and who it takes ad revenue away from — will be closely watched in the business of business magazines.

See the numbers here.