The End of Advertising?
The trouble with advertising is, frankly, that there isn't enough of it. Just in case you hadn't noticed, it's in a tailspin. Hey, this could be a catastrophe. Magazines and newspapers pay my bills. Advertising is their lifeblood (magazines get 50 percent of their revenues from ads, newspapers 80 percent). Is this the end of advertising? What about my future?</br></br>Almost everyone connected with advertising is in a funk. "Ad Biz May Never Be the Same," says a headline in Advertising Age. "Some veteran publishers are not shy about calling it {the ad decline} a depression," reports the industry newsletter MIN.</br></br>Here's why. In the first six months of 1991, ad revenues were down 14.4 percent at Newsweek, 18.5 percent at Business Week and 11 percent at TV Guide, reports the Publishers Information Bureau. Last week poor advertising caused Family Media Inc. to shut down its seven magazines, including Discover and Health.</br></br>Elsewhere in medialand, things aren't much better. Local and network TV ad revenues are off about 7 percent in 1991. Newspaper advertising was down in 1990 and also slipped 7 percent in the first quarter of 1991. Media company profits are being blitzed. The latest quarterly results are down 28 percent at Dow Jones & Co. compared with 1989, 87 percent at the New York Times Co. and 42 percent at The Washington Post Co.</br></br>Richard Harwood, ombudsman at The Post, speculates that a little adversity won't do the news business any harm. Maybe he's right. But how about a lot of adversity? Anyway, Harwood is near retirement, and he might feel differently if he worked at Family Media or for Psychology Today, New England Monthly, the National or California. They've all folded. In 1990, at least 20 magazines went belly up; the unofficial total so far in 1991 is 16, according to the Magazine Publishers of America. Some magazines are so desperate they're willing to slant stories to please advertisers, reports The Wall Street Journal. One health magazine reportedly offered to do a favorable story on two diet products for $25,000.