Money Talks

We're imagining Anna's lips disappearing into a thin line of anger: Forbes has announced that in the first half of the year, Elle has sold more ad pages than Vogue.

For fashion magazines (and any magazine, really) ad sales are where the big money comes pouring in. With the state of the economy, everyone's ad sales are down, Elle is down 22%, Vogue is down 32%. Some more numbers for you: last year, Vogue had 10% more ads than Elle, but for the last six issues, Elle sold 970 pages and Vogue sold 956.

It's pretty close, but are these the winds of change? Vogue has been the most elite and respected fashion glossy for decades though many fans of the magazine have been grinding their teeth over recent cover choices like Blake Lively and Sienna Miller (a frequent cover girl) - choices that Forbes dubs too "down-market" and possible signs that Vogue is slipping.

We would die of happiness if we thought this meant models and designers would regularly be gracing the covers of these popular fashion magazines, but Elle's recent cover girl choices haven't been spectacular lately either. Is this just going to be changing of guard, that doesn't really change anything all that much?

--AMANDA JEAN BOYLE

Sponsored Topics: Fashion - Vogue - Magazine - Sienna Miller - Forbes