WSJ. sees fewer ads

Irin Carmon of Women’s Wear Daily reports on the next issue of WSJ., The Wall Street Journal‘s new magazine, and notes the decline in display advertising.

Carmon writes, “What it delivers significantly less of are ad pages: there are 27 of them, out of 92 total pages in the national edition, and four additional ones in a New York version. By contrast, September’s premiere issue had 51 ad pages out of a total of 104. The third issue, unlike the first two, is saddle-stitched rather than perfect-bound.

“Though the original plan was to go monthly this year, WSJ. is remaining a quarterly in response to market conditions. Publisher Ellen Asmodeo-Giglio put it bluntly: ‘The commitment is there, the investment is there, but the advertising is not. We’re still going full force, but the ad climate is extremely challenging.’

“Asmodeo-Giglio emphasized that News Corp. chairman Rupert Murdoch remains committed to the magazine, despite the deep losses at the Dow Jones operation recently reported by News Corp. ‘I know that the magazine is a priority for him to maintain and to grow eventually,’ she said, adding the initiative has brought in new advertisers that are often bundled with newspaper and digital buys at the Journal.”

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