The Association of Magazine Media released its third quarter numbers on Wednesday, and it’s actually good news for print media: print ad revenue is up by 4 percent compared to the third quarter of 2012 and 2 percent for the year.
Print and iPad ad revenue was even better — up almost 7 percent.
That improves on the upward trend seen in the previous two quarters, where revenue increased 0.5 percent.
The number of ad pages, on the other hand, continued to decline, down 1.8 percent.
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“This is an encouraging trend, with consistent advertising growth in magazine media across platforms,” said Association of Magazine Media’s president and CEO Mary Berner. “Marketers are shifting dollars in some instances from print to tablet editions, but continue to invest in magazine media. Print is improving and the tablet business is growing.”
But that doesn’t mean all magazines shared in their collective good fortune: “Soap Opera Digest” lost 41 percent in ad revenue, “Parenting” lost 66.5 and “Black Enterprise” lost 65.
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Big revenue winners included “Women’s Health” (50 percent), “In Touch” (66 percent), “Eating Well” (up 157 percent) and “HGTV Magazine” (298 percent) — “HGTV Magazine’s” huge jump is largely due to its mid-2012 launch.
In all, the increase lifted ad revenue by almost $183 million — which includes revenue lost when a number of print magazines, including “Baby Talk,” “Spin” and “Newsweek,” folded.