Magazine ads way, way off ...

By a third. This sucks for print.

The second quarter didn't bring any improvement in the fortunes of consumer magazines, which saw ad pages plunge 29.4% compared to the same period last year, from 60,721 to 42,841, according to the Publisher's Information Bureau. While not completely unexpected, this bad news dims the prospects for recovery later this year.

At this rate, 2009 is shaping up to be the worst year for consumer magazines since 1932, when total revenues dropped 30%.

Of course it's possible the steep declines in the first half of the year will be offset by smaller losses in the second half, but this becomes less likely in light of the continuing downward trend. The latest PIB figures represent the ninth straight quarterly decline for consumer magazines, marking over two years of uninterrupted losses. This is virtually unprecedented: Over seven decades between the Great Depression and now, consumer magazines never experienced two consecutive years of declines -- but they now appear to be suffering their third.

Even more alarming, the rate of decline appeared to be accelerating in the second quarter, furthering a long-term trend.

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