Mags: Who's the fairest of them all (September)?

As anyone who's seen The September Issue would know, a glossy plump with advertising pages is something to be excited about.

In a world where thin is always in, this is the one area where fat acceptance reigns supreme. As a general rule of thumb, the bigger the book size, the more profitable the issue, though often special efforts are made to keep up appearances (the fattest isn't always best and fairest). So who fared best for the month of September amongst the Aussie glossies?

Looking at hard-cash advertising pages alone, Vogue Australia's anniversary issue is the queen of the castle with 150, followed by Harper's BAZAAR (133) and Marie Claire (109). When you add sponsored or advertorial pages to the mix, Marie Claire can be credited with upping its book size to accommodate advertiser real estate while reserving 57% of its pages for editorial, while Harper's BAZAAR offloaded 60 pages to the marketing team and Vogue 32*.

Year-on-year, Marie Claire and Vogue both increased their book sizes (308 to 324 pages; and 266 to 364 pages respectively), while Harper's produced the same volume as last year (388 pages). However, Harper's experienced a 9.5% decline in ad pages (it booked 147 ad pages in September 2008.) Vogue booked 108 ad pages in 2008, making this year's 150 pages a 28% gain. All round, an ostensibly good money-making month for the publishers of these prestige fashion titles.

Promotions for ACP's '30 Days of Fashion & Beauty' fattened up Cosmopolitan, Harper's BAZAAR, madison, SHOP Til You Drop and The Australian Women's Weekly, though skinny stablemate Cleo appears to have missed out on the standard 16-page promotional insert (it probably could have done with the support).

Indie titles Frankie and RUSSH are yet to add advertorial to the mix (perhaps decidedly so), while The Weekly is plush with promotional pages. Dad also gets a special look-in this month, with marketers signing up for Father's Day promotions.

FYI, your typical glossy book features:
- Editorial pages
- Advertising pages
- Sponsored advertorial/marketing pages
- In-house ads (websites, subscription offers, affiliated magazines)
- Inserts and gatefold ads
- Competitions and reader discount offers
- Classifieds
- Terms and Conditions
- Stockist lists
- Tips-ons

*Please take all figures as a guide, as I can't promise their absolute accuracy. Publishers vary in how they allocate and define ad/marketing/editorial pages.

Yours truly,
Girl With a Satchel