The US magazine industry is finally showing positive signs and bouncing back out of the depths of recession as demand for both consumer and trade magazine advertising pages starts to grow.
The Publishers Information Bureau, which tracks the number of advertisements carried by consumer magazines, recently cited a turnaround in demand, as did a unit of the trade group American Business Media, which reported the first advertising page gain for trade magazines since December 2003.
According to the PIB, advertising revenue for the month of June 2004 closed at $1.7 billion, an increase of 8.4% when compared to the same period last year. Total advertising pages rose by 3.1% over the year to total 19,267.51 by June 2004.
Over a five month period to May, figures from the ABM revealed that business-to-business advertising revenue had grown by 1.8% while advertising pages, which are often deemed a more vital indicator of the magazine industry’s health, was down 0.9%.
President and chief executive of ABM, Gordon Hughes said the organisation is encouraged by the May results and has predicted the ‘upswing in b-to-b will continue to the second half of the year’.
Last month the US Association of National Advertisers said that nearly half of US advertisers expect their budgets to increase in the next year, with magazines set to benefit the most from the budget hike (see Half Of US Advertisers Set To Increase Ad Budgets).
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