2009 means record ad revenue for LGBT publications

When reviewing the economic landscape, it is important to look at not only the general overview but the smaller niche media, too.

As a general statement, the media industry saw a steep decline of advertising revenue since the economy took a downturn in 2008. Some media platforms, on the other hand, have been able to recuperate at a quicker pace than others.

According to MediaPost, the 2009 Gay Press Report was just released by Rivendell Media, and it concludes that publications for lesbians, gays, bisexual and transgendered (LGBT) people had a relatively successful ad spending year. In fact, ad revenues for LGBT publications went from $308 million in 2008 to $350 million in 2009. That is a 13.6% increase. To compare, other consumer magazine ad spending decreased by 17.5% in 2009 from the previous year.

It is important to note that while the ad revenue increased for LGBT print, the actual number of ad pages sold decreased by 6.8% in a year. This can be explained that rates may have increased, or bigger and more expensive ads were purchased.

The report also mentions that while the number of gay publications increased from 130 in 2008 to 136 in 2009, there were some casualties to the recession. A few big titles closed like Genre, and a few consolidated like The Advocate and Out. These events resulted in a blanket drop in circulation for LGBT media of about 27.6% from 3.3 million in 2008 to about 2.4 million in 2009.

When reviewing the economic landscape, it is important to look at not only the general overview but the smaller niche media, too. Sometimes, those smaller groups like LGBT are on an upturn and can bring your message to an engaged target audience.

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