Magazine Advertising: The Exceptions

When I noted yesterday how few consumer magazines posted advertising gains in the first quarter of 2009, I didn't realize just how few it really was. As The New York Times points out today, only 15 titles managed to do so. That's 15 out of some 246 tracked by the Publishers Information Bureau.

Here's the full list:

The Advocate: +15 percent
Cooking with Paula Deen: +18.3 percent
Family Circle: +5.4 percent
Fitness: +28 percent
Golf World: +0.2 percent
Hallmark: +30.5 percent
Muscle & Fitness: +19.1 percent
National Geographic Kids: +1.0 percent
National Journal: +42.1 percent
Natural Health: +2.1 percent
OK: +22.4 percent
Organic Gardening: +19.7 percent
Sports Illustrated Kids: +30.3 percent
The Week: +19.0 percent
Twist: +2.5 percent

Spot any patterns in there? Let's see: Two kid-targeted spinoffs. Two crunchy-lifestyle magazines. Three news magazines (counting The Advocate).

There you have it: The way to make money in the magazine business in 2008 is to launch a weekly news magazine for hippie children.