Run-of-press ad pages in the country’s largest consumer magazines were up 2.7% in 2007, according to Leading National Advertisers Canada (LNA). Meanwhile, ad revenues were up 4.9% to $732.5 million (although this number is based solely on rate cards and doesn’t take discounts into account.)

Canadian Home & Country saw the biggest increase in ROP ad pages for 2007, up 26.1%. It's been a very successful year for the Transcontinental shelter title, with newsstand sales up 155% for the January-June period.

When inserts and supplements are included in the counts, the numbers look even better: Pages grew by 3.2% and revenue grew by 5.3% ($817.74 million). LNA tracks advertising sales at 98 magazines.

It’s interesting to compare these numbers to those from the Publishers Information Bureau, which tracks the American market. While U.S. magazine ad revenue was up 6.1% in 2007, ad pages were virtually flat, declining 0.6%.

It’s also interesting to compare 2007 ROP growth/shrinkage for traditional rivals:

Maclean’s (-6.6%) vs. Time (-10.3%)

Maclean’s published 48 issues in 2007, compared to 47 in 2006. Time, meanwhile, has dropped more than 20% of its ad pages since 2005.

Canadian Business (-5.5%) vs. Financial Post Business (3.7%) vs. Report on Business (-3.7%)

FP published one fewer issue in 2007 than 2006. The magazine also saw an increase of 6.9% when inserts and supplements are included, while CB’s page count improves by 5.6% in the same calculation. Not ROB, though, which drops 10.3%.

Canadian Family (45.1%) vs. Today’s Parent (16.7%)

Canadian Family did increase its frequency in 2007 (up from six to eight issues per year.) Still, this category appears to be booming.

And a few more:

• Flare (1.8%) vs. Fashion (0.3%) vs. Elle Canada (-0.1%)
• Now (1.6%) vs. Eye Weekly (-3.7%)
• Outdoor Canada (-1.9%) vs. Ontario Out of Doors (-12.1%)
• Chatelaine (2.4%) vs. Canadian Living (5.6%)
• Style at Home (-5.6%) vs. Canadian House & Home (-3.5%)
• Wish (-2.8%) vs. LouLou (13%)

The Top 10 gainers* (measured by ROP pages):

Top 10 decliners*:

Here’s what the trending looks like for ROP pages as measured by LNA going back to 2000 (revenue in brackets). Note that year-over-year gains in revenue also reflect rate card increases:

2007: +2.7% ($732.5 million)
2006: -0.1% ($698.5 million)
2005: +0.4% ($670.0 million)
2004: +6.5% ($646.6 million)
2003: +4.1% ($600.5 million)
2002: +1.4% ($559.3 million)
2001: +2.1% ($462.7 million)
2000: +10.1% ($454.0 million)

*Does not include titles where an unequal number of issues were published in 2007 vs. 2006.