Comments on Magazine Advertising - RF Cafe Forums

Greetings:

Please use this space to comment on the "Kirt's Cogitations" article discussing the volume of advertising content in media. I am particularly looking to get feedback on what the RF trade magazines charge for a full-page ad. My article estimated $1,500, but I suspect that is low.


Thanks.

_________________
- Kirt Blattenberger
RF Cafe Progenitor & Webmaster

Hi Kirt.

You are way low on your pricing estimates. Here is RF Design's rate.

https://rfdesign.com/images/marketing/pet_kit-web.pdf

They get $4,970for a full-page ad IF you agree to go for 12 months. For a single appearance, it is $5,895!

Here are Microwave Journal rates:

https://www.mwjournal.com/Media/PDF/MWJ2006Rates_US.pdf
They get $6,370 for a full-page ad IF you agree to go for 12 months. For a single appearance, it is $7,540! Their smallest ad it $870 for a 1-month appearance. My guess is that RF Cafe ads get the attention of a lot more people.

My guess is that this is typical. So, multiply that revenue figure by at least 3-4 to get the true amount. The mags are cleaning up big time!

You really should try launching a magaziner of your own. I'm sure with all the visitors RF Cafe has you could do it.


- Ed

Here's the Microwave & RF rates:

Full page for 12 runs = $7,410 and for 1 run is $8,825.

So at the cheapest rate per full page:

63 pages x $7,410/page = $466,830 per month in print advertising revenue.

The Microwave Journal MTT-S edition sucks up:

226 pages x $6,370/page = $1,439,620 per month


- Ed

Hi Kirt. Since I'm doing your work for your today , here is the rate sheet for High Frequency Electronics magazine.

They hit you for $3,450 for a full-apge ad if you agree to 12 months, or $4,800 for a ont-time full page.

- Ed M.

Greetings Ed:

Keep in mind everyone that these rates are for one print edition appearance, not for the entire year.

Thanks for your detective work. Springboarding off your efforts, I looked up the rate card for EE Times (weekly).

They get $21,960 per full page in the main section of the magazine if you agree to run 7 issues! A cover costs you $26,860! Yowser!!!


EDN (every two weeks) is making a nice income at $18,252 for agreeing to 7 issues.


IEEE Spectrum charges an even $20,000 per page at the 12-month rate.

So, probably for the first time, you now know how much the sometimes-good, sometimes-bad full-page ads are costing the companies. See my Kirt's Cogitations for the estimated advertising revenue per edition.

_________________
- Kirt Blattenberger
RF Cafe Progenitor & Webmaster

Nice job on the magazine revenue! I have had the same "itch" as you for wondering what those guy rake in, but never went to the trouble to reseacrch and estimate it.

I don't care that they make that much, in fact, I'm glad to see good old capitalism at work! Have you looked into what Vogue charges for a full-page ad? I'll bet it's on the same scale (probably more) as our trade mags.

I also have learned a lot from the magazine articles throughout the years (I've been at it for 20 more years than even you). I remember when those editors had hair! .

Somewhere a while back you wrote about how many of the magazines are just thrown away. I happen to be a "collector" but the mail room trash bin in the large defence contracting company I work for is chock full of unread copies every time they are delivered. The vast majority of the ones that don't get s***canned right away get piled in cubes for a year and then chucked. I guess the advertisers know this but feel they get a good deal anyway. I gag at those prices. How can a startup even afford to advertise?

Enough of my rant. Keep up the good work Kirt. Now I'm going to finally enter your tshirt contest.

Take care,
Loren