Business Magazine Advertising

The first three months of 2008 were tough for most of America's business publications as both ad pages and ad revenue declined significantly.

There’s something ironic about business publications losing business. You’d think that with all the information and wisdom they disseminate, they’d retain enough to protect themselves from major slumps in advertising revenue. However, according to the 2008 first quarter reports from Magazine Publishers of America, the magazine industry association:

Business Week suffered a 19.4 percent decline in ad pages, dropping from nearly 533 pages in the first quarter of 2007 to 429.5 pages in the first three months of 2008. That represented a drop in revenue from $63.8 million to $53.9 million.

Forbes ad pages dropped 13.2 percent, from 581.8 pages to 504.8 pages. Revenue dropped from $66.6 million to $61 million.

Fortune Small Business ad pages declined 18.6 percent, from 92.1 to 75 pages. Its revenue fell from $9.9 million to $8.4 million.

Fortune Magazine did better than its small business brother, losing only 1 percent of its 433 ad pages and actually increasing its revenue from $49,2 million to about $50 milllion.

But some of the smaller business publications fared badly:

Smart Money lost 21.4 percent of its pages and 17.7 percent of its revenue.

Kiplinger’s Personal Finance’s ad pages declined 20 percent and its revenue fell from $10.3 million to $8.5 million, down 17.2 percent.

What’s the old proverb? "Physician, heal thyself."

But Magazine Publishers of America said American consumer and business magazines collectively experienced a 6.4 percent decline in ad pages and a 1.2 percent decline in revenue during the first quarter of 2008.