Bingo! That's what pays the bills.
I guess the real question is: Why couldn't the magazines that went
out of business get enough advertising. My wife worked for a
major US magazine publisher, in the Ad Sales department. As important
as the content is, the ads are what makes the bucks. I was suprised at
first to learn that the Ad Sales manager made a higher salary than even
the top editors.
There was a 1 to 1 ratio of ads to content. If an advertiser backed
out at the last minute, they would have to cut a page of content. Around
December/January, ad sales were VERY hard to get. So those months, the
magazine was VERY thin.
If the magazines attempted to give the readers a higher ratio of
content to advertising, then they would need to make up the money
somewhere. The only magazines that I've seen survive with very
little advertising are professional journals, where the subscription
cost was VERY high ($20-30 per issue). Anyone who thinks that
the cost of subscriptions or the cover price pays the expenses of
producing a magazine are very wrong.
-- Chuck Gadd