Oct. Ad Pages Up 8.4%

Magazine ad pages in October increased 8.4 percent from the same month last year, marking the sixth-consecutive month of industry gains, according to the Publishers Information Bureau. Advertising revenue has similarly kept pace in the period, showing a 14.4 percent rise to $2.2 billion last month.

The comparison is helped in part by dismal results in October 2003, when ad pages dropped 3.2 percent from the same period in 2002. But the current spate of growth is a hopeful sign for publishers, whose industry has lagged behind competitors like cable and the Internet in reaping benefits from the media recovery.

The automotive category posted its third month of growth in October, with ad pages rising 20.9