First-quarter ad-page numbers are in, and things are looking up for most titles. Then again, after 22 percent ad-page declines in the first quarter of last year, it would be hard for things to get any worse. Overall, this year’s ad pages are up 2.2 percent for the first three months of 2010. Titles doing well include Marie Claire, with the largest gain in its category, up 23 percent from ‘09. InStyle and Lucky also did well, with gains of more than 17 percent, while Elle’s pages were up 7 percent and Harper’s Bazaar’s were up 4 percent.
However, Vogue’s pages were down less than one percent. Cosmopolitan’s also fell almost one percent, and O The Oprah Magazine’s dipped 2.7 percent. Worse off were Glamour, with a 4.7 percent decline, and W, with a 22 percent decline.
However, the statistics may not tell the whole story: Fashionista notes that Vogue says they don’t negotiate on ad-page prices, which could have contributed to their small decline. However, they recently hired Marie Claire’s old publisher Susan Plagemann. Can she convince Anna Wintour to lower prices? And does refusing to do so make Vogue the Abercrombie of magazines? Jessica Biel’s outfit on the February cover may be Ralph Lauren, but it’s a lot of denim for Vogue.
TRENDING UP [WWD]
