The amount spent on display ads in cancer-related journals overall declined to $32 million from $36.5 million for the first 10 months of 2009, according to PERQ/HCI, a firm which tracks medical-publishing performance. Ad pages were reportedly down 9.8 percent over the same span. Ad sales declines were prevalent across many oncology journals in 2009, including Community Oncology.
The cancer category has been more resilient than other medical-publishing segments in the past. According to publishers, factors like the economy and uncertainty due to M&A activity and healthcare reform are behind the decline in ad sales/pages. The drug-development pipeline, which has historically powered oncology journals' success, has also shown signs of fatigue.
The PERQ/HCI data shows that Community Oncology witnessed a nearly $400,000, or 39 percent, decline in ad sales compared to the first 10 months of 2008. The journal is one of the three cancer-related titles published by STM publisher Elsevier's International Medical News Group. Significant declines prevail across the category. As of October, the Journal of Oncology reported a decline of 11 percent in dollars and nearly 16 percent in pages as against the first 10 months of 2008.
All medical journals, except for urology, posted declines through the first three quarters of the year. The decline in oncology is significant as the category has achieved the highest ad dollar total among all specialties since 2007. This year, cardiology, the next closest segment, had only half of oncology's sales volume.
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