Record Gay Media Ad Spend In 2006

June 6th, 2007

Advertising spend in the gay and lesbian press has grown almost three times as fast as that in consumer magazines over the past ten years, according to a survey produced by Prime Access and Rivendell Media.

Ad spending in gay and lesbian publications in 2006 reached a record $223.3 million, representing a 5.2% increase on 2005 figures and an increase of 205% since 1996. According to the 2006 edition of the Gay Press Report, the compound annual growth rate for ad spend in cosumer magazines was 4% over the last ten-years, whereas ad spend in the gay press grew 11.8% compounded annually for the same period.

Growth in ad spend in the Gay press versus regular consumer magazines

Gay media spend, though, is still only a fraction of overall ad spend on consumer magazines. In 2006, overall magazine ad sales grew 4.1% to $13,251 million. Advertising in the LGBT press accounted for only 1.69% of the total.

Within the gay press, ad spending was distributed as follows:

Product Category	% Of All Ads
Eat and Drink	15.4%
Real estate	11.6%
Services / Non-medical	10.0%
Health / Fitness / Grooming	7.1%
Arts and Entertainment	6.6%
Professiona Services	6.4%
Retail	6.3%
Travel	6.2%
Phone Services / Personals	6.2%
Medical / Health Related	5.3%