The current craptastic economy continues to affect all levels of society and business, and the poor printed word takes yet another hit: I found this article that relates to one of my previous posts, about how The New York Times is selling ad space on its front page in a desperate bid for income. It looks like magazines may have to resort to the same tactics: the number of advertising pages in magazines for the month of March dropped 26%. I'm not sure which magazines are included in this survey, or what the criteria is for inclusion in the review - the article mentions that the downturn affected "nearly all titles" - but I do know that that sound I hear is the death knell for even more magazines.
The majority of people are pinching pennies. And if people aren't out spending money willy-nilly, marketers have less inclination to place their ads in numerous publications: they're spending a lot of money for very minimal results. How do you market effectively in a severely bad economy? That is: how do you make people want to spend money?
Apparently, promising to make a consumer's body look like the one in the picture is enough of an incentive: the only magazines unaffected by this ad decline were "muscle magazines":
ad placement in Flex and Muscle and Fitness rose as much as 33%. This finding makes absolutely no sense to me. Maybe people who are obsessed with their appearances enough to subscribe to such magazines view pills as being as necessary to their well-being as groceries. Are there any sociologists out there who can explain this one?
In a final note, the beleaguered music industry continues to suffer, with magazines like Blender and Vibe losing ads by up to 64% - Print and Music Revenue locked together in a sad downward spiral.
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Nothing like going to the gym to work off your frustrations. Assuming you can afford the membership.
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