Out of range:This weblog has been called a dork for blogging while on vacation…and we agree. Anyway, as this weblog will be off-shore (doing some outsourced fishing) most of the next four days, expect less dorkness.

I’m not one to say ‘I told you so’: Okay, I take that back. I am one to say “I told you so.” Last month, I predicted that the faux-statistic of year-over-year “ad pages” would be coming to an end within a month or two.

Rexblog flashback, May 11, 2004:

Rock bottom? Magazine advertising pages in B-to-B books continue to decline (Note: I’ve given up ever trying to educate anyone that revenues are more important than ad pages). The good news: within a month or two, lousy previous-year numbers will make such comparisons look impressive. Most flagrant faux statistic in this article: 300,000 advertising pages “have been loss” since the beginning of the recession. Lost? How can something be lost that never existed? That’s like politicians using the word “cut” to describe a slow-down in the rate of growth of a government program.

Well, this month we enter into the era of a new faux statistic: “gains-in-ad-pages.”

Quote from MediaPost.com:

For magazines, the long national ad-revenue nightmare may be over. For one month, anyway. After ten consecutive months of ad page erosion, the major consumer magazines tracked by the Publishers Information Bureau recorded a gain in May–rising 4.8 percent over May 2003…Reported advertising revenues rose 12.8 percent–marking the strongest advertising month so far this year, ending a 10-month streak of declines, and possibly topping off a lousy few years for the business, which had yet to feel the effects of a resurgent ad market.

MediaPost needs to clarify that last sentence, “ending a 10-month streak of declines,” as it is using apples (advertising pages have been down for ten months) to describe oranges (advertising revenues have NOT had a 10-month streak of declines, at least according to stories in previous months of MediaPost). However, I will agree, it has been a lousy few years for the business.

Travel advisory: This weblog is currently as far away as one can be yet still be close. However, not close enough to blog very regularly until next Tuesday, June 15. I will, however, be posting fishing reports.