Ad decline of 16.3% in Q1 for magazines measured by LNA

Advertising for many of the largest magazines in Canada has declined 16.3% in the first quarter of 2009, according to a report in Masthead, based on proprietary data from Leading National Advertisers. The data, using ad page counts from 71 consumer, custom and special interest publications, shows that 60 of the titles tracked losses of pages and 37 saw declines of 20% or more.

Revenue figures, arrived at by multiplying pages by rate card figures (therefore not taking account of discounting) show a decline of just over 15% or about $18.6 million.

Titles taking major blows this time around include Canadian Geographic (-56.3%), Teen Tribute (-50%), TV Hebdo/TV 7 Jours (-48%), Canadian Business (-45.6%), LouLou (English) (-44.6%), Vancouver (-41.6%), Report on Business (-40%), Western Living (-39.4%), Tribute (-36.9%), Moneysense (-35.2%), Affaires Plus (-35%), Explore (-34.7%), Financial Post Magazine (-34.2%), and Maclean’s (-30.3%).

In terms of revenue, the biggest drops came at Chatelaine (-$2.6 million), Maclean’s (-$1.5 million), Canadian Business (-$1.3 million), Reader’s Digest (-$1.1 million), Flare (-$1.1 million), Canadian Living (-$1 million), Report on Business (-$795,600), Canadian House & Home (-$738,600), Loulou (English) (-$675,600), and Financial Post Magazine (-$663,400).