Exceptions the rule: Just yesterday, I said I didn’t blog about the buying and selling of magazines (or, “transactions” as we professionals call them), but WWD.com’s report that what’s left of Penthouse is for sale is too witty to pass up.

An even dozen: Today, the folks at Hammock Publishing are celebrating the company’s 12th anniversary. In dog years, that makes us 61.

The no bun-pun zone: The NY Post reports Britney Spears is “humiliated” by the Esquire Magazine cover photo I blogged last week. I know the rest of us share in her humiliation. However, I wonder why she’s not humiliated with the other photos appearing in the issue. (via mediabistro.com)

Spin school: This is my last rant, I promise, on the up-is-down coverage of September PIB numbers. It’s obvious that my attempts to explain maganomics is a struggling cause.

Here is a quote from Mediapost’s Larry Dobrow’s piece today about the numbers:

September ad pages dipped 4.5% from September 2002 levels, marking the fourth consecutive month of page declines, according to the estimates. While ad page volume still is up 0.3% on a year-to-date basis, the hoped-for second-half rebound has yet to materialize, as evinced by the September results and August’s 2.9% drop. Ad revenues, which are calculated by the PIB on an open rate card basis, have grown 9.0% in 2003, but you’d be hard-pressed to find many people within the magazine business who view those numbers as anything but a disappointment.

“It’s very discouraging,” says Rebecca McPheters, president of magazine consultancy McPheters and Co. “There’s no positive way to spin it. I think magazines may be paying the price for advertisers’ unbridled enthusiasm during the [network TV] upfronts.”

Okay, for those who are in the magazine consultancy business and others, the following is a positive way to spin it.

1. Magazine advertising revenues are up 9%.

2. Magazine advertising page yields are up dramatically.

3. This means that magazines are no longer giving away pages.

4. Here is an extra spin point: Revenues pay consultant fees, ad pages do not. Revenues pay salaries; ad pages do not. Revenues show up on the balance sheet; ad pages do not.

I could go on, but you get the spin.