MUNCIE, Ind. - In an effort to reach consumers, advertisers are paying more for space in magazines while readers now spend less to buy them, says a new study from Ball State University.

A survey of magazine prices from 1980-98 found that consumers are paying 9 percent less today than they did in 1980 when prices are adjusted for inflation.

Over the same time period, advertising rates more than doubled. Top magazines such as National Geographic now charge more than $200,000 for a full-page color ad.

"Consumers now pay less than half of the actual cost of magazines because advertisers are willing to pay more," said David Sumner, a journalism professor who conducted the study of prices charged by the nation's 96 highest-circulation magazines.

"Magazines ads are considerably less expensive than network television commercials and provide a more targeted reach to special interest audiences," he said. "The research also shows that consumers respond to magazine advertising more readily than any other media except for newspapers.

The study was published in the Journal of Advertising Research. Sumner also writes an annual report on the magazine industry for the Encyclopedia Britannica Yearbook.

"Another reason that magazine publishers haven't increased consumer prices is because new technology has decreased or stabilized production costs," he said. "Since advertiser demand remained high, it has been easier for publishers to ask for more from advertisers and get it."

In the study, Sumner found circulation revenue based on sales income in 1980 constituted 57.6 percent of total magazine revenues while advertising made up 42.4 percent. In 1998, circulation revenue dropped to 41.8 percent while advertising revenue rose to 58.2 percent.

The study also found:

• The cost of a black and white full-color ad increased by 133 percent from 1980-1998, or about 18 percent when adjusted for inflation. A full-page color ad rose by 135.6 percent - adjusted for inflation - over the same time period.
• Single-copy magazine prices increased from an average of $1.44 in 1980 to $3.16 in 1998, an increase of 199 percent or an 11 percent jump when adjusted for inflation.
• The average magazine subscription increased from $14.49 to $26.04 over the time period, an 80 percent increase, but a decrease of 9.8 percent when adjusted for inflation.
• Advertiser demand has decreased 10 to 20 percent in the last year due to the economic slowdown.

Sumner believes another factor in magazines becoming more heavily supported by advertisers during the mid to late 1990s can be attributed to the growth of the Internet.

"Until the 1990s, radio and network television were the only mass media available free to consumers," Sumner said. Magazines, newspapers and cable television were at least partly subsidized by consumers."

The Internet has shifted that balance with a growing number of magazines offering online versions free of cost to consumers.

Also, heightened awareness of special interest topics created by the Internet has caused an increasingly competitive marketplace in which more than 3,000 new magazines have been introduced in the last five years, Sumner said.

 (NOTE TO EDITORS: For more information, contact Sumner at dsumner@bsu.eduor (765) 285-8210.)