The St. Joseph shopping mag is the first quarter's big gainer, up 50.4%.

Run-of-press ad pages for Canada's largest consumer magazines remained relatively flat in the first quarter of 2008, according to the latest stats from Leading National Advertisers Canada (LNA). An apples-to-apples comparison of the 77 magazines tracked by LNA in both 2007 and 2008 reveals a modest 2% decline. First quarter ad revenue was up 4.8% (to a total of $127.7 million), but ROP is considered a more pure measure of success, since the revenue figure doesn’t account for publisher discounting and rate card changes.

 When inserts and supplements are included, the ROP count shows a more troubling 6.6% decline, though revenue is also up on this front, by 2.7%.

Three magazines, all based in Quebec, have recently joined LNA—Cote Jardins, Espace Parents and Tout Simplement Clodine. The following magazines, meanwhile, are no longer tracked: BC Outdoors Sport Fishing, Cottage Magazine, The Outdoor Edge, Western Sportsman, Derniere Heure, Star/Systeme and Starweek.

Here's a look at what happened in some of the larger categories from January to March 2008, versus the same period in 2007. All percentage changes relate to ROP ad pages.

Alternative weeklies

• Eye Weekly (7.4%)
• Now (-8.8%)

Business

• Canadian Business (19.4%)
• Financial Post Business (-1.4%)
• Report on Business (-15.1%)

Celebrity/entertainment

• 7 Jours (4%)
• Hello! Canada (1.1%)
• Inside Entertainment (-41.7%)
• Le Lundi (-4.3%)
• Movie Entertainment (-18%)
• Star Inc. (-27.1%)
• Teen Tribute (-55.4%)
• Tribute (-11.1%)

Greenthumb

• Canadian Gardening (-10.8%)
• Fleures Plantes Jardins (5.5%)
• Gardening Life (25.8%)

Fashion

• Elle Canada (7%)
• Elle Québec (-6.6%)
• Fashion (10%)
• Flare (8%)

General Interest

• Canadian Geographic (7.2%)
• enRoute (-1.6%)
• Reader's Digest (17.6%)
• Sélection du Reader's Digest (4.1%)

News and current affairs

• Maclean's (-2.3%)
• Time (-8.6%)
• L'actualité (-20.9%)

[Note: Maclean's and Time published five issues in March 2008, versus four issues in March 2007.]

Regional

• Toronto Life (43.1%)
• Vancouver (7.2%)
• Western Living (9.1%)

Shelter

• Canadian House & Home (-1.1%)
• Canadian Home & Country (-23.4%)
• Decormag (5.6%)
• Décoration chez-soi (-15.8%)
• Harrowsmith Country Life (-6.2%)
• Les idées de ma maison (-21.7%)
• Style at Home (2.8%)

Shopping

• Glow (2.4%)
• LouLou (English) (-0.2%)
• LouLou (French) (1.7%)
• Wish (50.4%)

Special Interest

• Explore (22.3%)
• Outdoor Canada (-22.2%)
• Ontario Out of Doors (19.4%)
• Canadian Home Workshop (-17.4%)

Women's Service

• Canadian Family (7.4%)
• Canadian Living (-3.8%)
• Chatelaine (10.3%)
• Châtelaine (10.4%)
• Clin d'oeil (-12.2%)
• Coup de Pouce  (7.8%)
• Enfants Québec (9%)
• Homemakers (-13.5%)
• Madame  (-36.2%)
• Today's Parent (-1%)

For more info on LNA, contact: Danuta Zwicewicz at 416-644-3527 or danuta.zwicewicz [at] imsms.com