Folio Magazine

Mondo Times editors    Boulder, Colorado USA

Posted at 11:52pm on Thursday, August 27th, 2009

Trade magazine advertising pages fell 30.2 percent in the first half of 2009, Folio magazine reported on August 25, 2009:

"Trade magazine advertising pages fell 30.2 percent through the first half of 2009, according to American Business Media’s Business Information Network numbers, which were released today. Revenues, meanwhile, were down 26.5 percent.

ABM also noted that b-to-b trade show revenue, as tracked by Center for Exhibition Industry Research, was down 18.6 percent through the first half. Combined, magazine and trade show revenues declined 22.3 percent, ABM said."

The full story:
http://www.foliomag.com/2009/b-b-ad-pages-fall-30-percent-through-first-half

Eric Kallgren    Boulder, Colorado USA

Posted at 1:58pm on Tuesday, February 24th, 2009

February 20, 2009: Tony Silber, the editor of Folio magazine, wrote about why he believes free online content is not a sustainable business:

"Fifteen years ago I bought the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal and USA Today every day. Now I just read them online. I subscribed to a slew of magazines, like The New Yorker, Newsweek, American Heritage, National Geographic. Now I read them and many others online.

Why not? It's free. And I'm just not one of those people who needs to have the experience of a magazine or newspaper in print. I like content, not form.

And because my behavior is like that of tens of millions of other people, the media industry is in turmoil. You can't overstate it: The newspaper industry's days are numbered. And many magazines won't be able to survive the new world of free online content."

Eric Kallgren    Boulder, Colorado USA

Posted at 9:50pm on Tuesday, January 13th, 2009

On January 13, 2009, Folio magazine reported that magazine advertising sales dropped like a rock in 2008:

"Many publishers would like to forget 2008 ever happened.

Consumer magazine advertising pages dropped 11.7 percent in 2008 when compared to 2007, according to year-end figures released by the Publishers Information Bureau late Tuesday.

The drop in advertising accelerated in the fourth quarter, as pages slid more than 17 percent.

“Like other ad-supported media, magazines have been affected by the economic slump, which deepened as 2008 progressed,” Ellen Oppenheim, the Magazine Publishers of America’s executive vice president said in statement. “Advertiser decisions for the fourth quarter were influenced by a range of factors. For longer-lead time monthlies, consumers cut spending during the summer due to soaring energy prices, which caused advertisers to put buy fewer ads in year-end magazine issues. In the fall and early winter, rising unemployment and steep stock market declines led to restrained ad spending in weekly titles.”

The drop followed three years of flatness, and was by far the worst slide since before 1999, the earliest year comparative PIB numbers are available."