Earnings: Rodale Q2 Revenues Rise 7.6 Percent As Online Gains Top 27 Percent
This story was written by David Kaplan.
Health/lifestyle mag publisher Rodale appeared to have a different Q2 than most of its print competitors. The company, which is privately held and therefore has decided to withhold dollar amounts, says that its total revenue grew by 7.6 percent in Q2, while all online revs, including ads and subscriptions, was up 27.1 percent. While impressive compared to most other pubs, the company is obviously not immune to the ad slowdown, though it surely benefited from having the books and e-commerce business to buttress its primary mag products. Last year, Rodale's Q207 online ad revs gained 117.2 percent year-over-year. Meanwhile, print ad sales were up 8.3 percentversus what Rodale says is 4.9 percent decline for the mag industry as a whole. In Q207, Rodale said that ad pages climbed 20.6 percent.
Getting back to online, uniques and page views for Rodale's sites were up by 74 percent and 94 percent, respectively, compared to the same period last year, though the company did not report what last year's numbers for those categories were. Revenues for Rodale's magazine-branded sites increased by 14.7 percent in Q2. For the first half of 2008, the company said 36 percent its new customers have been acquired through online channels, compared to 29 H107. Release
By David Kaplan