NEW YORK, Nov. 24 (UPI) -- A seemingly immune economic sector, luxury living, is feeling the effects of the U.S. recession with drops noted in luxury ad sales, data show.
Media Industry Newsletter reported ads fell 22 percent in the nation's top luxury magazines in December issues, The New York Times reported Monday.
MasterCard SpendingPulse said luxury spending plummeted 20.1 percent in October, after a relatively slight decline for the first nine months of the year.
Publishers have reacted. Conde Nast said it would cut releases of both Men's Vogue and Conde Nast Portfolio magazines. Publishers of Gotham and Hamptons, Niche Media and American Express Publishing have announce layoffs, the Times reported.
Counting the pages, Vogue's December issue was 284 pages in December 2007 but weighs in at 221 pages this December. Food & Wine published 160 pages last December and totals 126 pages this year, the Times said.
"The stereotype in our sector is the high-end luxury brands are Teflon to a recession, which, of course, is nonsense," Alexander Duckworth of Point One Percent, a New York City firm that helps luxury brands with marketing told the Times.
"We're just seeing the very beginning of this."
