Sluggish performance by business magazines in first quarter

TALKING BIZ NEWS EXCLUSIVE

The three largest business magazines — Bloomberg Businessweek, Forbes and Fortune — posted positive results in the first quarter, but virtually every other title struggled, particularly those geared toward small businesses and personal finance topics, according to an analysis of Publishers Information Bureau data by Talking Biz News.

Of the big three, Fortune performed the best, with a 15.2 percent increase in ad revenue to $38.8 million and an 8.1 percent increase in ad pages to 272.14.

Bloomberg Businessweek posted a 9.7 percent increase in ad revenue to $50.6 million and an 8.2 percent rise in ad pages to 338.86, while Forbes posted an 11.7 percent rise in ad revenue to $50.1 million and a 7.4 percent jump in ad pages to 330.83.

However, eight of the 14 business-related titles showed a decline in ad revenue for the first three months of 2012.

The personal finance publications had an especially weak performance. Kiplinger’s Personal Finance recorded a 30.9 percent drop in ad revenue to $3.7 million and a 33.8 percent drop in ad pages to 53.93.

It was followed by SmartMoney, which had a 19.3 percent decline in ad revenue to $6.9 million and a 23.4 percent drop in ad pages to 67.42. Money magazine had a 9.3 percent decline in ad revenue to $20.8 million and a 13.7 percent decline in ad pages to 91.79.

Both Inc. and Entrepreneur also saw declines. Inc.’s ad revenue fell 13.8 percent to $7.6 million and its ad pages fell 15.6 percent to 92.67, while Entrepreneur’s ad revenue fell 9.1 percent to $19.1 million and its ad pages fell 10.1 percent to 219.22.

However, Fast Company reported a 9.6 percent increase in ad revenue to $8.7 million and a 4.4 percent increase in ad pages to 95.85.

See all of the data here.