Less bang for your buck: Ads outweigh content in magazines
Tuesday, December 02, 2008
A quick read of the latest issue of Los Angeles magazine was made even quicker by the ads that dominated the magazine, surpassing the number of actual news articles. To determine if this was out of the ordinary, ten magazines were randomly selected from a local newsstand and the number of ads in each was counted.
The hand count includes total pages in the magazine, including any fold-out pages, front, rear, and inside covers, and full-page inserts. Here are the results, ranked from lowest percentage of ads to the highest.
78 pages, 27.66 total ads
244 pages, 96.83 total ads
114 pages, 46.33 total ads
98 pages, 45 total ads
160 pages, 77.66 total ads
204 pages, 99.16 total ads
364 pages, 208.66 total ads
240 pages, 138 total ads
360 pages, 218 total ads
284 pages, 191.5 total ads
The hand count includes total pages in the magazine, including any fold-out pages, front, rear, and inside covers, and full-page inserts. Here are the results, ranked from lowest percentage of ads to the highest.
Time
78 pages, 27.66 total ads
Cosmopolitan
244 pages, 96.83 total ads
Rolling Stone
114 pages, 46.33 total ads
Blender
98 pages, 45 total ads
People
160 pages, 77.66 total ads
Esquire
204 pages, 99.16 total ads
Vanity Fair
364 pages, 208.66 total ads
Wired
240 pages, 138 total ads
Vogue
360 pages, 218 total ads
Los Angeles
284 pages, 191.5 total ads
Labels: news on the news
3 Comments
Says:
I'm not sure what the big deal is. This has been standard for decades. Look at Oprah or Martha Stewart. They run about 75% ads (and have for years). Wedding mags are closer to 90-95%.
If they can get it, god bless 'em.
If they can get it, god bless 'em.
Says:
I used to work at a magazine publishing house. Our standard was 50%. Notice, though, that most (not all) magazines still have what's called the "edit well." This is a section in the middle of the magazines, usually running 1/4 to 1/3 of the total pages, that has no ads at all. The well is usually where the lead story and others jump to, and often it doesn't have many photos either; just columns and columns of text.
From the magazine's perspective, it could be either.
Good: Because it means more money for them.
Bad: Because it probably means they're struggling.
It's definitely an interesting observation. Let's hope news/magazine Web sites never end up with such overwhelming percentages! That would be bad.
December 2, 2008 3:08 PM