Media Economics Group – Blog

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Hispanic magazines have closed the books on another tough year.  Preliminary estimates from HispanicMagazineMonitor™ show a 4.7% drop in ad pages and a modest 3.9% increase in ad spending for 2010 (all comparisons on a “same-titles” basis).  Total estimated ad revenue for 2010 reached an estimated $178.8 million.

While – overall – the results are disappointing, still they stand in sharp contrast to the dramatic declines in both ad pages (-23.5%) and dollars (-27.1%) suffered by Hispanic magazines in 2009.  By that measure 2010 was a marked improvement over 2009.

Despite overall weakness, some of the larger Hispanic magazines posted encouraging gains.  For example, ad dollars at Latina rose 9.1% and ad pages increased 7.2%.  Two Meredith titles – Ser Padres and Siempre Mujer – also posted strong increases in both ad pages and dollars.  At Ser Padres, ad dollars rose 15.6% and ad pages by 12.7%.  At Siempre Mujer, ad dollars rose 8.5% and ad pages rose by 6.61%.  People en Español – the largest Hispanic magazine with $47.4 million in estimated ad revenue in 2010 – was basically flat in ad pages (-0.07%) but posted a 4.5% increase in ad dollars.

One factor behind the continued weakness in ad activity in magazines (aside from general weakness in the ad economy) is the sputtering recovery in auto spending.  While total auto advertising in 2010 of $13.7 million was double the 2009 level of $6.4 million, automotive spending is still well below its 2007 peak of $38.3 million.   Among the auto companies, only General Motors increased ad spending appreciably in 2010.  In fact, GM’s increase (from $2.8 million in 2009 to $8.5 million in 2010) accounted for 80% of the entire gain in auto ad spending in 2010.

Closures and consolidations have also impacted ad totals for Hispanic magazines in 2010.   Closures in 2010 include Cafe Magazine, Disney en Familia, Latino Future, and – announced just a few weeks ago – Mira! magazine.  In 2010, Televisa Publishing also withdrew the U.S. Hispanic editions of three titles with relatively small circulation in the U.S.: Harper’s Bazaar en Español, Maxim en Español, and National Geographic en Español.  (Note: these three titles continue to circulate in Latin America and some of those editions might even be found on U.S. newstands sporadically; however, dedicated U.S. Hispanic editions of those titles have been discontinued).

Reductions in publication frequency by some magazines also adversely affected ad results.  For example, TV y Novelas (Televisa Publishing) reduced publication frequency from 24x in 2009 to 18x in 2010 (and will further reduce frequency to 12x in 2011).  TV Notas (Maya Publishing Group) also reduced frequency from weekly to bi-monthly beginning in November.

Over the next few weeks we will provide additional break-downs and analysis of 2010 results including: complete list of launches and closures, top magazines, top advertisers, etc.  Also look for our annual summary analysis of rates and circulation for all Hispanic magazines for 2011.

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