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Q: At the beginning of the year, several medical publishers lowered the price of a four-color ad in an attempt to increase their market share. What do you think the impact has been on the medical advertising marketplace as a whole?
"From what we've seen, the rate reduction has had only a minor effect on journal media planning. Few publications actually reduced rates, although several held rates from last year. Among the handful that did drop rates, most were minimal. In fact, most of the reductions and stabilizations were in the primary care area, which has much higher rates to begin with and is probably most affected by client budget issues.
Over the last two years, we've seen journal budgets for many brands remain flat.This makes it difficult for publishers to increase rates and may cause more journals to consider rate reductions or develop additional incentive-based programs to try to gain an advantage. There's no doubt that journals remain an efficient way to reach physicians and...