Atlas Shrugged: The Mocking

Thursday, September 24, 2009

Burying the Lede

Megan McArdle says:
Advertising has plummeted for most publications (although, of course, she noted modestly, the Atlantic actually recently enjoyed its best ad month ever).

What McArdle doesn't say:
Coming off a difficult first half that saw ad pages slide 24.6 percent compared to the same period last year, The Atlantic said its July-August "Ideas” issue, on newsstands now, pulled in the most ad revenue of any issue in the magazine’s history.

The Atlantic has always lost money.
Atlantic Media is a private company and profitable, thanks to the National Journal, a political publication with a Capitol Hill readership, which commands subscription fees of $1,600 a year. The Atlantic, with a circulation around 400,000, is known for its lengthy original reports that run to thousands of words. It has lost $12 million in its worst years under Bradley but should lose less than $5 million this year [2007], he said.

The economy is much worse now than in 2007, which no doubt is why ad revenues are down almost 25%. McArdle might want to rethink her immodesty.

2 comments:

clever pseudonym said...

"while publisher Jay Lauf declined to say exactly how much in revenue the issue generated."

So, basically, the Atlantic had it's biggest revenue generating issue ever...according to the publisher, who refused to give any numbers?

Anonymous said...

Having "McCardle" and "rethink" in the same sentence is quite oxymoronic.