Don't call it a comeback, at least not yet.
The number of ads purchased in 2013 for iPad editions of magazines rose 16%, according to a study by the Association of Magazine Media and Kantar Media. That's good news for an industry hit by falling ad revenue, but another number stands out in the report: Print ad units were almost unchanged from the year before, down a fraction of a percent.
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With print revenue comprising more than half of magazine revenues, news that print ad units were steady is a welcome relief. Ad pages are a closely followed indicator of the magazine industry, as the magazines' rates change from publication to publication and often client to client.
Digital growth is an encouraging sign for the industry, but is still unable to offset overall declines in revenue due to falling print sales and contracting circulations. Digital ads make up about 6.6% of overall magazine revenue, according to the Pew Research Center.

The question is whether digital ad sales can continue to grow at a pace that will help to slow the contraction of the U.S. magazine industry. Worth $25 billion in 2012, PricewaterhouseCoopers projects that total to drop to $23 billion by 2017.
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