Biz magazines' health reflects economy's
The state of business and finance magazines is as bad as the market and economy they cover:
"This year continues to be tough," said Geoff Dodge, U.S. sales director at Business Week. "The convergence of the dot-com bubble burst, corporate scandals and a depressed stock market makes it difficult for companies to stand up and spend a lot on advertising."
Indeed, some of the magazines are back to ad levels of the mid-'90s and earlier. From a peak of nearly 6,000 ad pages in 2000, Business Week plunged to 3,786 last year - about as many as in 1995 - and could finish 2002 with even fewer.
...Except for Fortune, which increased newsstand sales slightly in the first half from a year ago, the seven other business and finance mags posted falloffs in single-copy performance.