Ad pages in print magazines drop 5 percent in third quarter

The number of advertising pages in print magazines dropped by more than 5 percent during the third quarter, according to figures released by the Publishers Information Bureau on Monday.

One of the few magazines to buck the trend was Bloomberg BusinessWeek, which saw a 39 percent increase in its ad pages between July and September. (The ad-free issue on the death of Steve Jobs may dampen the numbers for the magazine's fourth quarter.)

Under Josh Tyrangiel, BusinessWeek's editor since December 2009, the magazine has tried to compete on the traditional editorial turf of the consumer newsweeklies, including politics. But BusinessWeek may not want to actually call itself a newsweekly: The four major newsweeklies--Time, Newsweek, The Week and The Economist--each saw ad pages and estimated ad revenues decline when compared to the third quarter of 2010:

• Newsweek
AD REVENUE: -3.9% | AD PAGES: -10.0%
• Time
AD REVENUE: -1.3% | AD PAGES: -4.0%
• The Economist
AD REVENUE: - 7.0% | AD PAGES: -8.4%
• The Week
AD REVENUE: -11.5% | AD PAGES: -17.2%

The third quarter slide interrupted what has been a positive year for print ad sales for the four newsweeklies, with the exception of Newsweek. Here are the advertising numbers for the newsweeklies through September in 2011, compared to the same period for 2010:

• Newsweek
AD REVENUE: -17.9% | AD PAGES: -22.0%
• Time
AD REVENUE: 7.1% | AD PAGES: 4.2%
• The Economist
AD REVENUE: 3.6% | AD PAGES: 0.4%
• The Week
AD REVENUE: 13.6% | AD PAGES: 7.0%

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