Business

See you in September

The annual magazine ad-page race just got a little bit tighter last week among the fiercely competitive women’s fashion titles, with Vogue trumpeting a 658 ad-page tally for its September issue (its most watched), up a robust 14 percent from a year ago.

It marks the magazine’s biggest ad-page tally since the telephone book-sized September 2007, which tallied 725 ad pages and was the subject of an award-winning documentary.

Ad pages that year at Condé Nast were juiced because of a multipage Fashion Rocks advertising insert that ran in all the publisher’s magazines that year.

The September 2012 Vogue issue is being billed as the 120th anniversary of the magazine, and Condé Nast publisher Susan Plagemann kept the closing date for advertisers open an extra week, making it one of the latest closings ever for the fashion bible.

As a result, the Condé Nast flagship has pulled into the year-to-date lead in the closely watched titles in the women’s fashion world, with 1,949 ad pages, according to Media Industry Newsletter (MIN).

InStyle, which reported the biggest September in its 18-year history, with 440 ad pages, was up 2.3 percent. Its year-to-date tally is 1,904.6 — about 45 pages behind rival Vogue, with three issues to go.

It should make for a tight race down the homestretch; InStyle Publisher Connie Anne Phillips has won three years in a row by overtaking Vogue at the wire.

The two top magazines are outpacing the two Hearst stablemates, which also performed nicely in September. Elle racked up its second-strongest September ever with a 400-page month — 2007’s 413-page issue was its all-time leader — while in-house rival Harper’s Bazaar also bounced back, with a 16.6 percent ad-page rise to 360.

Elle has 1,749.8 ad pages year to date, according to MIN, good for third. Harper’s Bazaar was hurt because it dropped down to 10 issues this year and has 853.5 ad pages so far, but it is still rebounding.

W, which is a larger-size glossy, was off 3.5 percent for the upcoming September issue, with 246 ad pages and 825.5 year to date, but publisher Nina Lawrence may be forgiven. The magazine is pushing its November issue as its 40th anniversary, and some advertisers may be moving into that issue instead of the traditional big month of September.—Keith J. Kelly

Yahoo!-ligans

The status of Yahoo!’s Ross Levinsohn is still in question.

Levinsohn — the former acting CEO — has said barely a word about his future at the portal, since his short run at the top was blown up by the surprise hire of 37-year-old Marissa Mayer as the Yahoo! in Chief.

Mayer was brought in for her expertise in products and has so far been welcomed by the Street. The stock closed at $16.11 on Friday, above the $16 mark for the first time in months.

Friends of Levinsohn say he should be considered for a president’s title at the very least if he agrees to stay, and it appears that he hasn’t totally closed his mind to the idea.

One source, however, said the chances of him staying are “very low.”

Another person, who believes Levinsohn should have landed the gig, snarked, “How many products has Google been successful at?”

Levinsohn was responsible for bringing in a host of newcomers, like Michael Barrett from Google as its chief revenue officer.—Claire Atkinson

Master of disaster

Bonnie Schneider, a veteran TV meteorologist, has become a popular TV guest whenever bizarre or disastrous weather hits, thanks to her book “Extreme Weather,” published this year.

Frequently when she appeared, the host would ask her to bring along her emergency-supply kit so viewers could see what they needed to have on hand to prepare for the next tornado, hurricane, flood or other act of God.

“Despite hours of shopping, I was unable to locate all the items that I thought it was necessary to have,” she admits.

So now she is hoping she can find a backer or manufacturer that will help her put together a survival kit, one aimed specifically at women.—Keith J. Kelly

Hoodie no goodie

The hoodie has no place in the office, says a survey by job-placement agency Robert Half.

Despite the dress of tech titans like Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Zynga’s chief gamer, Mark Pincus, the heads of IT departments said casual dress is no way to get ahead.

The survey found that two-thirds of the chief tech officers have a dress code that requires employees wear somewhat traditional office attire, such as dress pants or skirts.—Post staff