Retail woes hit press

Retail sector woes are behind a four per cent drop in magazine ad page volumes for the 12 months to December, according to new research.

Neilsen data released to sister publication AdNews today showed total ad page volumes for the top four publishers - ACP Magazines, Pacific Magazines, Fairfax Magazines and NewsLifeMedia - fell four per cent in 2011 to 54,249 pages.

Out of the top four publishers, Pacific Magazines was the most robust with ad pages falling only two per cent year-on-year to a total of 14,899 pages last year.

ACP Magazines ad pages fell four per cent to 28,071 pages and NewsLifeMedia fell five per cent to 9,952 pages.

Fairfax Magazines had a 31 per cent decline to 1,327, but it must be taken into account that most Fairfax titles included in the data are newspaper inserted magazines.

In line with the general downward trend of ad pages, NewsLifeMedia closed two titles last year, turning the final pages on Notebook and Ralph.

While ACP will launch Women's Fitness in September, it last week closed FHM magazine and had delayed the Australian launch of Elle magazine due to a weak retail market.

However, MediaCom head of IP&I Melbourne Nick Keenan remained optimistic about the future of consumer press.

"I think there's a big overreaction to the future of magazines. Magazines are a very good channel with a future.

“They are, however, going through a tough time at the moment which is highly linked to the changing structure of the media in general and also the fact we are in a post-GFC world in which we haven't yet emerged.

"In this environment, retailers are in all sorts of trouble and magazines take so much retail and [fast moving consumer goods] money.”