Despite not having the best year for ad revenues, Condé Nast Publisher Bill Wackerman remains confident. He recently told the New York Post, “Although we’re losing pages, our market share is up. Market share is the new up.” NY Post (July 2, 2008)
Standard & Poors has removed Penton Media from its CreditWatch program and affirmed the company’s ‘B’ credit rating. This comes only a little more than a month after Penton called for a salary and hiring freeze, as well as launching a company-wide revenue reforecasting. Despite all this, Penton’s first quarter revenue increased 11 percent, presumably [...]
Hair magazine has undergone a complete redesign, with hopes of “bringing an edgier, glossier option to the hair market.” The change comes as former First editor Jane Ennis has become a major consultant for the magazine. Hair’s main sections now include celebrity styles, a six-page section examining a new hair trend from every aspect, [...]
With the price of gas increasing weekly, magazines are facing steeper-then-usual sales declines. Particularly, men’s titles and news magazines are down the most, though categories across the board show declines. To combat this decline, some different options are being thrown around. Some titles have the opportunity of hiking up cover prices. For others, with the average cover [...]
Some $50 billion worth of U.S. Treasury economic stimulus checks mailed to taxpayers in April and May led to an after-tax income gain of 5.4% and an inflation-adjusted consumer spending gain of 0.4% last month. “‘You pump out $50 billion in a couple months time, and there ought to be some noticeable impact,’ said Joshua [...]
Hearst still isn’t revealing much about its top-secret new food title, but bit by bit details are coming together. Late last week, Hearst confirmed publicly that it is in fact working on a food magazine in conjunction with the Food Network. Deirdre Koribanick has been hired as the design director to develop test issues, which [...]
Although July is traditionally the second smallest advertising month of the year, the 11.34% decline marked more trouble for magazines, most of whom saw big differentials in their ad sales numbers. Despite the weak economy making it tough on beauty and fashion advertisers, a host of Hearst titles showed impressive ad gains in July, including [...]
At this point in the year, it could go either way. “It will bode well for some other media, and whether that winds up being print or online, I don’t know,” said Roberta Garfinkle, senior vp, director, print strategy, TargetCast. “The beauty of print is that they never run out of inventory.” Weeklies and fourth-quarter [...]
In just a week’s time, the magazine business has waved goodbye to three top execs; leading many to speculate that their departures have to do with magazines’ struggle to keep up. The industry is having a tough time adapting to the slowing economy and the changes that traditional media is being forced to make. First, Martha Stewart [...]
Respondents to a survey conducted by Supermarket News and New Hope Natural Media indicated that they had increased their spending on healthy foods by 7.7% between last November and May, in spite of months of general food inflation. Results of the study, which included responses from 1,000 consumers, were released yesterday at the inaugural Healthy [...]