Women’s Wear Daily
John Koblin examined the 2011 ad page and newsstand results of 10 magazines that have editors who’ve been on the job for less than two years. What he found: “Despite the new editors and the buzz around their respective relaunches, the magazines haven’t seen much of a bump in first half and third quarter ad page numbers. Most are a little up; some are a little down. Newsstand performance is mostly down.”
Tina Brown’s Newsweek was down 27 percent in ad pages for the first half, and, more significantly, was down 24.5 percent in the second quarter, “after the magazine was Tina-fied.” For the year, the newsweekly is up 2.8 percent on newsstands and since the redesign was launched in March, it’s up 7.4 percent.
Josh Tyrangiel’s Bloomberg BusinessWeek showed a 15.8 percent jump in ad pages through the first half of the year. Newsstand, where the magazine doesn’t sell much, has suffered — down 34 percent in the first half.
The New York Times magazines brought in two new editors – Sally Singer for T, and Hugo Lindgren for the Sunday Magazine. After a strong first quarter — the magazines as a group collected more than 10 percent in ad pages — they finished the half with a 2.7 percent gain.
Ad pages in Architectural Digest — now edited by Margaret Russell — were up 4.6 percent in the first half of the year, while newsstand sales are down 16.4 percent.
Koblin also has results for Elle Decor, Bon Appetit, Veranda, Lucky, and W.
