Fall fashion mags increase in size

While they’re the first to shed pages when the economy takes a downturn,
fashion magazines are also the first to bounce back, as evident in a
slew of thicker fall books, Media in
Canada reports.

 Lilia Lozinski, SVP, St. Joseph Media, spoke with Made in Canada:

“It’s almost like we’re the foot soldiers, going in and getting really beaten up,” says Lozinski, who works with St. Joseph’s title Fashion. “All the different vertical categories behind us, as soon as they see the fashion category getting hit, it’s like ‘batten down the hatches because trouble’s coming.’ As things slowly start coming around, consumer confidence starts coming back and retail sales start increasing, then basically we’re the first ones to recover.”

MiC reports:

“If Canada’s top fashion magazines really are a barometer of the industry’s health, the outlook appears to be promising, yet capricious. Last year, the trend-driven magazines did not take a major dive in terms of pages in the midst of the recession, but neither is there a huge upswing for September 2010. This year, Fashion magazine closed at 206 pages, up 10 pages from 196 last year. Ad pages are up 18%, says Lozinski.”

Elle Canada is up 56 pages from 2009, while Flare was actually down 30 pages following its 30th anniversary special last September, but reportedly was up 25% in ad pages in June compared to the year previous.

MiC adds:

“The summer season was, in fact, an improvement for all three of the titles, as Elle‘s ad pages were up by 47% in June and Fashion gained 51%, which Lozinski credits to a surge in beauty product launches for the season.”