Magazine Sales

Newsstand sales were down nearly across the board for fashion and lifestyle titles in the last half of 2009, including Vogue, with a 15.1 percent drop in single-copy sales and Allure with a 17.2 percent decline. Faring better was Elle, sales of which only dropped 0.2 percent. The economy is mainly to blame for the declines. Some titles gained, like Harper's Bazaar, with a 0.3 percent increase, and Vanity Fair, with an impressive 5 percent increase, buoyed by strong sales of the August issue with Heath Ledger on the cover. The titles that fared the best in the women's fashion category are health-oriented magazines, including Health, with an 11.1 increase in newsstand sales.
(WWD)