The September ad pages are continuing to roll in as fashion’s biggest month inches closer, and perennial winner Vogue has once again taken the top spot. The news was bittersweet for the Condé Nast magazine, however; while its 631 ad pages will be the most of any magazine this September, overall paging declined 4.5 percent from last year’s biggest-ever September issue, which boasted 661 pages.
Time Inc.’s InStyle has the second-highest September tally, with ad pages up 6 percent over last year for a total 485 pages, marking its largest issue in the magazine’s 20-year history and sixth consecutive year of September growth. Publisher Karin Tracy attributed the growth to strength in the luxury category, which grew 12 percent. Sister title People StyleWatch also saw an increase in paging, up 6 percent year over year.
Back at Condé Nast, it was a difficult September for nearly every fashion title save for W, whose ad pages rose 5.2 percent to 303 under publisher Lucy Kriz. Glamour, with 215 pages, saw a 4 percent decline. Teen Vogue’s pages fell 33.9 percent to 112. And Lucky closed September with 90 pages, down 34.3 percent from last year’s 137 pages.
Better news could be found over in the newspaper industry, where The Wall Street Journal’s luxury style magazine WSJ saw its ad tally rise 24 percent to 90 pages, while the New York Times’ T magazine’s pages were up 4 percent to 157.
Earlier this month, Hearst released its own September paging, which included bumps for Elle, Harper's Bazaar, Marie Claire and Cosmopolitan.