Most biz magazines post decline in ad revenue, ad pages

Most of the large business magazines posted a decline in advertising revenue during the first three months of the year, while the overall magazine industry had a small increase in ad money.

Leading the decline was Bloomberg Businessweek, which had a 30.2 percent drop in ad revenue to $35.4 million, according to data released by Publishers Information Bureau. Its ad pages dropped 32.6 percent during the same time period to 228.52 pages.

Another big decliner was The Economist, which reported a 27.2 percent decline in ad revenue to $22.3 million and a 28.6 percent decline in ad pages to 330.88. And Forbes‘ ad revenue dropped 15.9 percent to $42.1 million, and its ad pages fell 19.6 percent to 266.03.

In comparison, the overall industry posted a 0.5 percent increase in ad revenue and a 4.8 percent drop in ad pages.

Bucking its competitors, Fortune was the only major business glossy to record an increase in the first quarter. Its advertising revenue rose 7 percent to $41.5 million, and its ad pages rose 0.3 percent to 272.94.

The large declines were also seen at some of the smaller business magazines. Black Enterprise, for example, saw its advertising revenue fall 35.4 percent to $3.7 million and its ad pages fall 34.3 percent to 80.41.

Harvard Business Review posted a 13.3 percent decline in ad revenue to $3 million and a 16.9 percent decline in ad pages to 63.80. And Inc. was down 9.7 percent in ad revenue to $6.9 million and down 11.9 percent in ad pages to 81.66.

Kiplinger’s Personal Finance, however, posted a 22.2 percent increase in ad revenue to $4.6 million and a 19.2 percent increase in ad pages to 64.27.

See all of the data here.