Publishing trade rag Media Industry Newsletter reports that several glossies saw a major uptick in first quarter advertisements, including Marie Claire (up 23% from last year to 255 pages), InStyle (17% to 512 pages) and Lucky (17% to 237 pages).
While that’s all good news, we of course have to remember that more ads do not equal more money. There’s a huge chance that Marie Claire, despite the fact it’s doing better than last year in terms of ad pages, didn’t make much bank. (We won’t know until the Publisher’s Information Bureau releases 1st quarter sales figures in a couple of months.) Vogue‘s ad pages may be flat, but they claim not to negotiate rates, so are their results actually better?
Regardless of whether this news means magazines will be able to bounce back from the recession’s crushing ad market, titles are attempting to reach beyond the traditional avenues of growth. GQ, for instance, sold 12,000 January issues via iPhone for $2.99.
Gotta start somewhere, right?