Guides
What a magazine media kit must contain to sell ad space
What a magazine media kit needs to sell ad space, shown through four real 2026 kits: audited circulation, rate cards, CPM arithmetic, specs, deadlines and sponsored-content labels.
What to take away
- A media kit answers five buyer questionswho reads, how many copies are verified, what a unit costs, how to supply it and by when. Anything that does not answer one of them is brand copy.
- Circulation and readership belong on different lines. Texas Monthly's 2026 national kit gives 160,376 circulation (Alliance for Audited Media, December 2024) and 3,189,000 readers (MRI-Simmons, 2025).
- Buyers divide the page rate by circulation in thousands. Woman's World lists a $97,515 gross four-colour page on an 800,000 rate base, which is $121.89 per thousand. GEARS lists $4,308 on a claimed 19,050-plus circulation, which is at most $226.14 per thousand.
- Print specifications differ by title. Three full-page bleed sizes in the kits below differ by up to half an inch, so a kit must state its own.
- Display, sponsored content and digital units need separate lines and separate labels. Woman's World rejects advertisements that are not immediately identifiable as advertisements.
- Do not publish a CPM range you cannot source. Quote your own rate and your own circulation, and let the buyer do the division.
The pages a kit needs
| Page | What the buyer takes from it | Where a real kit shows it |
|---|---|---|
| Audience profile | Who reads and how that was measured | Woman's World cites a brand study and a readership study; Texas Monthly cites MRI-Simmons |
| Circulation | Copies sold or distributed, audited or claimed | Texas Monthly and Woman's World cite AAM; GEARS states a distribution figure |
| Rate card | Price per unit, frequency tiers, gross or net | Woman's World states rates are gross; GEARS tiers rates by one to four, five to nine and ten issues |
| Specifications | Sizes, bleed, file format, resolution | Texas Monthly lists trim, bleed and safety sizes for each unit |
| Calendar | Ad close, artwork due, on-sale date | GEARS lists contract and artwork deadlines for each cover date |
| Terms | Cancellation, payment, commission | Woman's World sets out all three |
Put circulation and the rate card where a buyer can find them in seconds. The audience and subscription guide explains how to keep circulation, readership and subscriber counts apart.
Circulation: audited, claimed and readership
Audit bodies check circulation against records. The Alliance for Audited Media audits magazine publishers in the US, and its support pages on magazine statements refer to paid, verified and nonpaid circulation. Woman's World states in its terms that total audited circulation is paid plus verified, and that rate base guarantees are made on an annual average.
The Texas Monthly 2026 national kit sets the audited figure next to a competitor chart. It lists 160,376 for Texas Monthly against 75,820 for Vogue, 73,609 for Vanity Fair, 64,838 for GQ and 17,817 for The Atlantic, all sourced to AAM. It then gives a separate readership figure of 3,189,000 from MRI-Simmons print and digital readership. The two numbers measure different things, and the kit labels each with its source.
GEARS, the trade magazine of ATRA, takes a simpler route. Its rate card says the magazine is distributed to over 19,050 transmission professionals worldwide ten times a year. The card shows no audit statement, so a buyer should treat the figure as the publisher's claim and ask for the supporting records. See audience metrics compared for the definitions behind these labels.
For UK titles, ABC plays the audit role. How copies reach shops is a separate question, covered in UK magazine distribution.
Rate cards and CPM arithmetic
CPM is the cost per thousand copies. Divide the rate by circulation in thousands.
| Title | Unit | Rate (gross) | Circulation basis | CPM |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Woman's World, 2026 | Four-colour page | $97,515 | 800,000 rate base | $121.89 |
| GEARS, 2026, one to four issues | Four-colour full page | $4,308 | over 19,050 distributed | at most $226.14 |
| GEARS, 2026, ten issues | Four-colour full page | $3,675 | over 19,050 distributed | at most $192.91 |
Three cautions apply to every row.
- A rate base is a guarantee, not a count. Woman's World ties its guarantee to an annual average of audited circulation, so a single issue can differ.
- Rates are gross. Woman's World allows agency commission of up to 15% of gross charges after earned discounts. On the $97,515 page, an agency taking the full 15% leaves the publisher $82,888 before any other discount.
- Tiers change the answer. GEARS drops its full page from $4,308 to $3,675 for a ten-issue commitment, a cut of about 15%. IAAO's 2026 kit for its Fair+Equitable magazine lists a full page at $2,925 for one insertion, $2,800 for two to five and $2,700 for six to nine, and says non-members add 40%, which brings the single-insertion page to $4,095.
Position and special units cost extra. GEARS adds a 15% special placement fee and sells covers at set prices. IAAO adds 15% for guaranteed positions, excluding covers. Woman's World says cover positions and special units close 30 days before ad close.
Digital units are reported on different measures from print circulation. Texas Monthly's kit gives site pageviews, social views and newsletter sends, and says its display ads are IAB-standard units. This guide gives no digital CPM figure because none of the kits above publishes one.
Keep display, sponsored and digital separate
The Texas Monthly kit groups its products under separate headings. Print has brand advertising, special sections, native content (advertorial and native stories) and high-impact units such as gatefolds and die cuts. Digital has display advertising and custom content, with newsletters on a page of their own. Custom publications, video and podcasts sit under its in-house Texas Monthly Studio.
Newsletters show why the split matters. The kit lists each with sends, open rate and click rate, and says open rates are based on unique opens.
| Texas Monthly newsletter | Type | Emails | Open rate | Click rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| TM Today / This Week | Editorial | 486,000+ | 44.92% | 12.39% |
| Subscriber-only | Editorial | 106,000+ | 53.46% | 3.86% |
| From Our Partners | Sponsor | 81,000+ | 30.92% | 0.77% |
An advertiser comparing the first and last lines sees a click rate that differs by a factor of about 16. A kit that blended them into one price would hide that.
Sponsored text needs its own label and price. GEARS lists advertorial at $2,195 per colour page, with restrictions, against $4,308 for a one-to-four-issue full page. The FTC's native advertising guide, dated December 2015, says a native ad must not suggest it is anything other than an ad and recommends plain terms such as "Ad" or "Advertisement" near the headline. The guide is written for digital media and does not address print, so a print title should set its own label rule. Woman's World does: its terms reject advertisements that simulate editorial in appearance or style or are not immediately identifiable as advertisements.
Specifications and deadlines
Do not copy another title's sizes. Compare three kits for a full page with bleed:
| Title | Bleed size (inches) | Trim | Safe area |
|---|---|---|---|
| Texas Monthly | 8.375 x 10.75 | 8.125 x 10.5 | 7.625 x 10 |
| GEARS | 8.375 x 11.125 | 8.125 x 10.875 | 7.625 x 10.375 |
| IAAO Fair+Equitable | 8.75 x 11.25 | not stated | not stated |
An ad built for one will not fit another. The IAAO kit says its magazine is published nine times a year in digital format, yet its rate table is headed "Print Ad Member Rates", so a buyer should ask which edition carries the ad. Texas Monthly also lists a two-page spread at 16.5 x 10.75 before trim.
Deadlines belong in a calendar. The GEARS card gives, for its January to February cover date, an ad contract deadline of 12 December 2025, artwork due 19 December and release on 23 January 2026. For March the dates are 30 January, 6 February and 13 March. Both contract deadlines fall six weeks before release. Texas Monthly states that newsletter materials are due two weeks before the run date.
Terms complete the page. Woman's World invoices on or about the on-sale date, expects payment within 30 days and charges 1.5% a month on past-due balances. GEARS asks for payment on receipt of invoice, bills production work at $140 an hour and accepts no cancellation after the ad contract deadline. Editorial suggestion: state each of these in your own kit in one line, so the insertion order does not surprise anyone.
Build your own kit in this order
- Write the circulation line first, with its source and date. If it is not audited, say "publisher's figure" and offer the records.
- Add the audience profile with the study, sample and date. Keep readership off the circulation line.
- Publish a rate card with gross rates, frequency tiers and position surcharges, and say whether commission applies.
- List each product on its own pagedisplay, sponsored, newsletter, digital.
- State sizes, bleed, safe area, file type and resolution for every unit.
- Add a deadline calendar, a cancellation rule and payment terms.
- Date the whole kit. Rates and circulation go stale within a year, and the four kits above are all dated 2026.
Editorial suggestion: send the kit to one buyer you know before you publish it, and note every question they ask that the kit did not answer.
Sources
- [FTC, Native AdvertisingA Guide for Businesses](https://www.ftc.gov/business-guidance/resources/native-advertising-guide-businesses)
