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Magazine Single-Copy Sales Slip 8% in Q3 08: MagNet

Single-copy magazine sales slipped 8% in the third quarter of 2008, from 266 million to 224 million, according to MagNet (via Mediaweek).

Dollar sales were down just 2%, to $1.2 billion, as several celebrity weeklies raised their cover prices in 2008.

For the first nine months of the year, single copy sales fell 9% to 718 million; dollar sales were down 2.7% to $3.4 billion. Fourth quarter numbers aren’t in yet, but sales were trending worse than the third quarter, Gil Brechtel, pres and CEO of MagNet, says.

Magazine ad pages were down 9.5% through the first three quarters of the year; ad pages slipped 12.9% in the third quarter alone, for one of the worst tumbles in memory, according to the Publishers Information Bureau - but the market could revive by the second quarter of this year, says Peter Craig of magazine consultancy Bay Sherman & Craig.