Magazine Cutbacks Include Decline in Swag

(MoneyWatch)  Most of us, in tallying the carnage in the media industry, are using the usual metrics: layoffs, revenue and share price declines, bankruptcies. But there are other indicators as well, particularly this time of year, when huge amounts of money are spent on spreading the holiday spirit. The cancellation of the Condé Nast Christmas party comes to mind as one example that things are not well in media-land.

Therefore, I've been paying close attention to Ad Age's annual swag watch, a roundup of which companies in media and advertising have been giving -- and what. While Ad Age hasn't posted about every last candy cane and bottle of perfume, it does create a snapshot of how it's going out there. Below, a tally by industry, of the number of companies who contributed swag to the Ad Age larder.

Advertising/PR agencies (digital and non): 13 TV companies: 6 Magazines: 4 Marketers: 2 Out-of-home companies: 1 Online media companies: 1 Charities: 1

Having been showered with swag during my years as a full-time reporter, I can glean the following from the tally: Advertising and PR agencies, which have been hurt hard by the economic downturn, remain as sycophantic as ever; TV companies are feeling relatively healthy; marketers don't really need to please anyone except for shareholders; but magazines, ah, magazines ... they are hurting. Magazines may never have beaten ad agencies in terms of the sheer number of them that sent over gifts, but theirs were always the most, well, luscious, whether they consisted of food or not. But only three magazine gifts were highlighted by Ad Age. Interestingly, two of the three were from Condé Nast; one was from The New Yorker, and the other one was from the troubled start-up Condé Nast Portfolio. If you're really into desk calendars and notebooks, you'd be perfectly happy. As for me, I'm growing nostalgic for days of swag gone by. (Photo of New Yorker swag above taken by Hoag Levins of Ad Age.)