Fashion magazines shrivel up — where are the ads going?

August 18, 2009 | Matt Marshall | Comments | |

iphone-ads-women-fashionA host of women’s magazines are slimming down to anorexic states now that advertisers have pulled back during the recession and are finally experimenting with more efficient places to put their money — online and on mobile devices.

Lifestyle magazines InStyle, Vogue and Elle are expected to see revenue declines this year of 21 percent, 26 percent and 20 percent, respectively, according to the Publishers Information Bureau. September issues of these magazines are almost a third slimmer than last year’s batch, reports the WSJ in a good overview of the sector.

You know print really is dying when lifestyle magazines start losing their ads. Fashion brands were slow to move online, because women were slower to get online than men. That’s all changing, and it’s all the more marked because things are going so well online for the lifestyle sector: It is one of the few places showing growth in online advertising (healthcare is another proud example).

The main beneficiaries: Places where these women are going more: Twitter, Google’s YouTube video site, and fashion and lifestyle sites such as DailyCandy.com and Glam Media, notes the WSJ. (Indeed, we’re hearing from industry sources that Glam’s revenue in the second quarter was 45 percent higher than the same quarter last year, and that the company is projected to maintain that growth rate through the rest of the year. This comes even as people assumed online display advertising would die during the recession.) The iPhone is also mentioned as a protagonist: With the phone itself considered a fashion accessory, it may become easier — if not hipper — to browse fashion on an iPhone than by flipping through a print magazine.

growth-rates-magazinesThe positive trend online for lifestyle is also significant considering the big, general web sites are seeing significant declines in the second quarter: AOL revenue is down about 30 percent, NYT premium advertising is down 20 percent, Google is down in the U.S. (albeit up 3 percent globally), Yahoo is down 14 percent and MSN is down 13 percent.

[Image via WSJ]

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Matt Marshall is editor and CEO of VentureBeat. Follow him on Twitter at @mmarshall, and follow VentureBeat on Twitter at @venturebeat.

  • Comment on WSJ
    From SAI/WSJ:

    Jill said:

    The biggest winner: Online. Down: Fashion & Lifestyle Magazines. Companies like Glam.com that pioneered going after the women's fashion space 5 years ago and brought us indie publishers to join hands, is now proving that we had the right idea. Brands are choosing to spend their $$$'s online, boosting vertical sales, and bring the "Queen" Vogue down.

    No wonder, Anna Wintaur said when she heard "Blogs are the new Black" Glam brings Emerging Fashion Bloggers to Fashion Week in 2006 that she did not like the word "Blog" and that "they" should change it. I guess No more Black cars either for Conde Nast.

    Magazines got killed because they were arrogant and let a tiny startup eat their lunch that was from Silicon Valley. Now they are way behind, downsizing while Glam has become the #1, and we publishers are growing slowly. AOL with its blogs, Gawker, and now Glam's Network proves that the time for Web is now, and Fashion Brands are following through with their spending.
  • fashionBlogger
    OMG so right on! No time to read, mostly all web and iPhone/mobile. Good to see technology blogs like this one write about fashion & lifestyle for a change. Yes, it is true that magazines are dying. Yes, it is true that advertisers are finally moving online. Yes, it is true that Glam Media and lifestyle publishers are doing better than magazines or even Yahoo! So cool to see the female version of "David" vs "Goliath" Congratulations to them -- lots of hard work to win the brand and publishers hearts and trust. Woo-hoo!
  • Great post. (Will VentureBeat keep covering Fashion 2.0 stories if the fashion bloggers promise to stop beginning comments with "OMG"?)

    The winners in this story are not just reaping the benefits of display advertising budgets-- fashion companies are increasingly interacting with customers via social media, and startups are thriving on this new demand. In the fashion world, the whole online ad/marketing budget pie is getting bigger. Check out the Gap campaign on Polyvore, the Louis Vuitton presence on Facebook or the Victoria's Secret "hive" on StyleHive. 10% of social network ad spend is on niche sites (per eMarketer), and fashion/ women's lifestyle represents a good chunk of those niche sites.

    Not to mention the e-commerce commissions pouring into sites like ShopStyle, Coolspotters and Stylefeeder.

    All this is to say that Glam might be cleaning up for now, but their business model is already outdated vis-a-vis these other fashion interest portals.
  • JohnGabrikh
    That is interesting to analyze that lots of Fashion mags are capturing iPhone market, just purchase iWound the best fashion and art mag having music videos and much more.
  • Cate
    Absolutely fabulous. As a marketeer the first time Glam was mentioned was the launch story in Women's Wear Daily on Carl Portale, the former publisher of Elle and Harper's Bazaar. Carl is highly respected in fashion and knows all the brands for 30+ years and it was shocking to hear he had gone online. He brought a lot of credibility and long term relationships to Glam's launch. Brands need good audience circulation/reach with quality/content and making their campaigns successful. Just like Google simplified search and took print yellow pages and retail ad budgets, Glam has simplified brand ads and is taking style & retail brand print budgets online and is generally regarded as "the" leader now. Luxury brands are very conservative and fear technology so getting Gucci, Prada, Fendi, DVF, Diesel, LVHM, & Lauder online is considered a very large shift.
  • gibs
    When there is so many sites in this subject the print will go down, it will happen on any subject.
    here are just some of the sites
    http://www.similarsites.com/sites-like/style.com
  • TradeUp
    We are beginning to see who the graduating class of 2012 will be in media, bankers are circling to get into these hot Web 2.0 deals:

    1. Facebook (Accel, Microsoft, DST) IPO 6-10 Billion or sale to Microsoft or Yahoo
    2. Twitter (Union Square, IVP, Benchmark, Spark) IPO 1-2 Billion or likely sale to Google or Microsoft
    3. Glam Media (Accel, DFJ, DAG, GLG) IPO 1-2B or sale to Google/Yahoo or Hearst/Fox/NBC/Disney
    4. eHarmony (Sequoia, TCV) IP 1B or sale to IAC/Match.com
    5. LinkedIn (Sequoia, Greylock, Bessemer) IPO 1B or sale to Monster/WSJ/Bloomberg

    All these companies except Twitter were formed in the last recession and are now emerging as the winners of the so called Web 2.0 cycle. All of these companies have created new businesses that are #1, beaten competition online or print and are in hypergrowth. These will be good exits for their VC's finally.
  • internetmarketingagency
    It shows that this kind of advertisement really work.
  • practiceforex
    Great information about ads, this is an special and interesting way of advertisement.