Magazine Ad Revenue Continues Decline Despite Some Audience Growth

Even with audiences for magazine content still huge, the industry is having a hard time getting in on the massive growth of digital advertising.   Last year again saw a significant decline in ad revenue for magazine publishers in the U.S. Ad spending in print magazines, including Sundays or inserts, fell by 18 percent year-over-year, according to data compiled by eMarketer, to $8.97 billion in 2018 from $10.94 billion in the previous year. Spend in digital verticals of magazines actually rose by 3.3 percent, to $4.67 billion from $4.52 billion, but obviously not enough to make up the difference and not in line with the double-digit-percent growth in the digital ad market. Combined, advertisers spent 12 percent less with magazines and related content, down to $13.64 billion last year from $15.47 billion the year prior. Go back a few years and the drop is even more precipitous. In 2008, ad spend in U.S. print magazines was $20.47 billion, according to eMarketer, plus $2.14 billion to digital verticals and sites, for a total of less than $23 billion. Print spend plunged the following year to around $15 billion — this was the Great Recession — and held around there until 2015. After that, it

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