Print Magazines Supersize Sept.

Posted by Lesley Scott Jul 22, 2007

No, believe it or not that’s not the phone book clogging up your mail box…it’s actually the brick-sized behemoth aka the September issue of your fave fashion magazine. With popular books such as American Vogue setting a new record for the most pages ever printed for a monthly, including a jaw-dropping 727 ad pages – part of an annual 16 percent increase to a record-breaking 2,297 ad pages which more than topped In Style’s 2,216 pages (representing a 7 percent decline annually) – supersizing is the hot new trend in print publishing.

Although Men's Health, Elle, W and Harper's Bazaar will all be showing off their biggest issues ever, titles like Lucky, Cosmopolitan, Seventeen, Teen Vogue, and Maxim are all posting fewer pages – the flipside of the trend identified by Publishers Information Bureau. "That's all from one word — automotive," Rob Gregory, Maxim's group publisher, recently told WWD (September Fashion Issues Go Plus Sized, Friday, July 20, 2007).

Here’s how the print magazine field fared in terms of September ad pages:

SEPT 07: % CHANGE, YEAR-TO-DATE, % CHANGE

• Allure 209.3 ,12.3 ,1225, 13
• Cosmopolitan 191, -9, 1359, 4
• Elle 398, 8.4, 1734, 10
• Essence 136.9 ,0.6, 1004,.1, -0.1
• Glamour 285.5, 3.7, 1443, 13.5
• Harper's Bazaar 360, 16, 1316.1, 14
• In Style 396.4, 4.9, 2216.2, -6.8
• Lucky 279.3, -7.7, 1289, 1
• Marie Claire 168, -1.8, 974, 5.8
• Self 157, 2.6, 970, 7
• Vanity Fair 349.8, 5, 1466, 15.9
• Vogue 727, 16.2, 2296.6, 7.4
• W 477, 22, 1540, 12
• Women's Health 83.4, 54.5, 454.9, 49.1
• Seventeen 118.7, -10.4, 671.2, -8.5
• Teen Vogue 243.6, -10.3, 853.7, -5
• Best Life 93.7, 46.6, 369.1, 44.2
• Details 258.8, 1.6, 860.8, 6.3
• Esquire 154.5, 2.1, 725, -6.1
• GQ 331, 3.4, 1171, 2.4
• Maxim 102, -7, 609, -9
• Men's Health 155.4, 7.1, 791.6, 17.2
• Men's Journal 118.2, 22.4, 831.1, 16.5
• Men's Vogue 179.6, 9.8, 470.5, 72.7
• Stuff 65.1, -8, 456.9, -4

- via WWD