The Press: Records in the Ledger

The last entries were made in the ledger, and the Magazine Publishers Association closed its books on 1962. The arithmetic was impressive. Despite all the gloom criers, reported the M.P.A. last week, the nation's magazines logged their best year yet. Total ad revenue was up 5.4% over 1961, to nearly $876 million.

Along with the overall gain, the statistics contained some interesting sidelights. Biggest individual ad-volume gainer was Conde Nast's House & Garden, which climbed 47%, to $8,165,669. As usual, LIFE led the field in total revenue, with $140,565,848, comfortably ahead of Look's $76 million and the Saturday Evening Post's $66.5 million. The Reader's Digest, which began accepting ads in its domestic edition eight years ago, maintained its steady ad-revenue growth by registering a 25% increase, to $50,675,834.

The record was made despite the decline of Curtis, one of the country's oldest magazine publishing houses. Although two of the four Curtis magazines that sell ad space showed modest increases—Holiday (4%) and American Home (7%)—overall ad revenue fell a precipitous 17%, from $132 million to $109 million, in the most disastrous year in Curtis' history.