Updated: Fashion Titles' Sept. Issues Looking Thin

With 427 ad pages in its September issue, Condé Nast’s Vogue will carry the most ad pages of its competitors in the beauty/fashion set. But that triumph is offset by the fact that that figure represents a decline of 36.7 percent versus the year ago. (Taking last year’s Fashion Rocks supplement out of the picture, Vogue’s decline would have been 29.7 percent.)Fashion/beauty magazines have been closing their usually brick-like September issues this week, and not surprising given the state of the economy, the numbers that are trickling out aren’t too pretty. Time Inc.’s InStyle, led by recently appointed publisher Connie Anne Phillips, was an exception in pulling off an increase, however slight, of 1.9 percent, to 340 pages. Its younger and still-growing corporate sibling, People StyleWatch, was up 10 percent to 86 pages.Most titles in the set posted declines, though. Hachette Filipacchi Media’s Elle will be down 21 percent versus a year ago, to 327 pages. Hearst’s Harper’s Bazaar will carry about 280 pages, per a spokesperson, a decline of 27 percent. Sister pub Marie Claire is off 20 percent, to 139. All the Condé Nast fashion titles’ page declines are skewed by the absence of last year’s supplement tied to the glitzy Fashion Rocks concert, which was canceled this year. Not having the supplement added several percentage points to their declines.Lou Cona, president of the Condé Nast Media Group, said the minute-to-minute nature of ad buying makes it hard to predict future results. But he said he was proud of the September numbers. “If you look at it as an indication of how the industry is doing, it’s more of a reflection of how our clients are doing,” he said. “Our business is impacted because their business is impacted. I think this is a cyclical issue we have to deal with.” Condé Nast’s high-end W, whose luxury ad base has been particularly devastated by the recession, was off 53 percent, to 187 pages. Glamour, despite having a broad ad base to pull from, was down 41.9 percent, to 153 pages. Allure was down 51.6 percent to 118 versus against a record 2008 September issue a year ago. Unlike other fashion/beauty books, Allure’s biggest issue traditionally has been October, though. Shopping-focused Lucky was down 36.3 percent to 193. With core fashion, beauty and luxury advertisers cutting back drastically this year, all fashion/beauty publishers had to scramble more than usual to fill their September issues, which have served as a category barometer. Elle moved its September on-sale date forward two weeks to give salespeople more time to hawk pages, even if that meant foregoing the presumed single copy sales advantage it might have gotten by being on the newsstand earlier than its competitors. Of course, whatever benefits such tactics might have brought for September’s issues may well come at the expense of October.

Performance Marketing

Updated: Fashion Titles' Sept. Issues Looking Thin

Lucia Moses

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Lucia Moses