DOES ADVERTISING CLUTTER HAVE DIMINISHING AND NEGATIVE RETURNS

Advertising clutter is a phenomenon that arose from advertisers' need for advertising space. When too much space is devoted to advertising, clutter can jeopardize the audience's editorial interest. Commercial p ay media such as magazines have to balance the conflicting needs of th e advertiser and the audience. The authors report a longitudinal analy sis of the impact of clutter on the circulation and advertising revenu e of 10 selected magazines. They find that advertising clutter yields negative circulation. returns and diminishing advertising revenue retu rns when a magazine's clutter level exceeds historical averages. Enter tainment-oriented magazines appear to be more susceptible to the negat ive impact of clutter than, news-oriented magazines.