Five leading magazine publishers have pitched in on a multimillion-dollar ad campaign endorsing the "power of print." They say nearly 1,400 pages of the ads will be sprinkled through magazines including People, Vogue and Ladies' Home Journal this year with a value of $90 million . According to the publishers they have never before attempted such a large-scale campaign.
Olympic medalist Michael Phelps is pictured in the first of a series of ads promoting the power of magazines.

The ads press the case that magazines remain an effective advertising medium in the age of the Internet because of the depth and lasting quality of print, compared with the ephemeral nature of much of the Web's content.

In contrast with the Print Power initiative, this campaign only focuses on promoting the case for magazines. The Print Power campaign promotes the effectiveness of 6 major print media – newspapers, magazines, direct mail, door-to-door, customer magazines and catalogues. Print Power partners also cover the entire print value chain from paper production, distribution, printing and content through to delivery.

"The Internet is fleeting. Magazines are immersive," says one ad, which will appear in issues of the participating publications. The first spread features a photo of swimmer Michael Phelps from ESPN The Magazine, with the headline "We surf the Internet. We swim in magazines."

Just a few months ago, a handful of publishers announced another collaborative effort aimed at readying magazines for the migration of readers to digital devices. Since then, however, industry executives say advertising has begun creeping back into magazines after a two-year drought. The improved results have given them more ammunition to persuade readers and advertisers alike that the ink-on-paper business isn't dying.

"A lot of us sat back for way too long and listened to all this abuse and said nothing about it," says Jann Wenner, who orchestrated the campaign. "Meanwhile, we sit on top of one of the greatest mediums," adds Mr. Wenner, whose Wenner Media publishes Rolling Stone and US Weekly.

The Michael Phelps ad is accompanied by an essay about the appeal of magazines. "Even in the age of the Internet, even among the groups one would assume are most singularly hooked on digital media, the appeal of magazines is growing," the ad says. The publishers point to data from Mediamark Research & Intelligence that show magazine readership has risen 4.3% over the past five years.