The Press: Measuring Up to Predictions

The final figures just about matched the rosiest predictions: U.S. magazines collectively recorded their best financial year ever in 1964. The Publishers Information Bureau reported last week a combined magazine advertising revenue of $997 million—up 7% from 1963, which held the previous record. Among the leading revenue producers:

WEEKLIES

LIFE (3,235 ad pages): $158,716,645 for 1964—up 10%

Look (biweekly, 1,524 ad pages): $75,562,284—up 2%

TIME (3,154 ad pages): $69,670,942—up 14%

Saturday Evening Post (45 issues in 1964, now biweekly, 1,408 ad pages): $57,910,860—down 5%

Newsweek (2,614 ad pages): $32,430,416—up 7%

MONTHLIES

Reader's Digest (1,100 ad pages): $57,918,449—down 2%

McCall's (1,124 ad pages): $46,586,408—up 11%

Good Housekeeping (1,249 ad pages): $28,955,951—up 2%

Ladies' Home Journal (835 ad pages): $28,035,447—up 1%

Better Homes & Gardens (767 ad pages): $26,559,457—up 25%

For U.S. newspapers, the situation was a little rosier. Last year their combined advertising revenue rose 8%, to $4.1 billion, reported Charles T. Lipscombe Jr., president of the Newspaper Advertising Executives Association. And, as was the case with magazines, 1964 newspaper ad revenue topped the record high set the year before.