Another day, another tragedy in glossyland. Ads are down and Vogue leads the pack with the largest drop in pages.

Would it be bad to rub it in now, or should I wait for later?

I’ve never been a big fan of the glossy world of fashion. Magazines have always seemed like a dead technology and being that since I could type I’ve gotten my info from the internet, I’ve always known it was merely a matter of time before the old print and mighty saw some declines and was forced to play the even, democratizing field called the World Wide Web. Well, last quarters numbers are in and boy does it look very, very bad. Expect some more firings and dare I say it, Anna Wintour on the subway, within the year.
“Allure saw a 35 percent drop in ad pages to 214 pages in the first quarter, while Vogue declined 28 percent, or 218 pages, to a total of 563 for the period. Glamour declined 22 percent to 291, and W posted a 40 percent drop, or 218 ad pages, for the quarter, carrying 322 pages. Glamour’s 291 ad pages this quarter reflect a 22 percent slide. And as same-store sales at retailers continue to slide, shopping magazine Lucky saw a 35 percent contraction in ad pages, raking in 203 pages for the first quarter.

At Hearst Magazines, Town & Country has seen a 30 percent decline in the quarter: The magazine carried 247 pages for the first three issues of the year. Harper’s Bazaar carried 396 pages, a 21 percent decrease compared to 2008, while Cosmopolitan’s 305 pages are 48 pages, or 14 percent, below last year’s total. O, The Oprah Magazine reported a 20 percent slide in pages, to 305. Marie Claire is off 16 percent, totaling 214 ad pages. Meanwhile, Elle dropped 26 percent, gathering 435 pages through March. In Style, whose publisher, Lynette Harrison Brubaker, is leaving the Time Inc. title, reported a 29 percent drop in paging, to 436.”

LINKAGE: Lightweight March Issues