--- description: As final reports trickled in, U.S. magazine publishers totted up their best half-year profits ever. For the first time since 1961, Curtis Publishing reported a six-month net profit of $368,000; ad... title: Magazines: Still Climbing image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- * [U.S.](/section/us/) # Magazines: Still Climbing by [TIME](/author/time/) Aug 12, 1966 4:00 AM CUT by [TIME](/author/time/) Aug 12, 1966 4:00 AM CUT As final reports trickled in, U.S. magazine publishers totted up their best half-year profits ever. For the first time since 1961, Curtis Publishing reported a six-month net profit of $368,000; ad revenues were up 18% on the Saturday Evening Post, 20% on the Ladies’ Home Journal, and 40% on American Home. Time Inc. continued to pace the industry with a record net income of $17,730,000, up $4,095,000 from the same period in 1965\. McGraw-Hill Inc. was in second place, with a net income of $8,176,452, up $2,127,429. The upsurge seemed to bear out predictions that 1966 will be the magazines’ best year ever, and the pattern generally applied across the board. A surprise exception: the Reader’s Digest’s 11% drop in ad revenues. Such varied magazines as Cosmopolitan, Teen and Motor Trend all announced revenue increases of more than 50%. Hugh (Playboy) Hefner’s HMH Publishing did well enough to declare its first cash dividend, 75¢ per share, though it was a bit like transferring cash from one pocket to the other. Hefner himself owns 80% of the stock, giving him a personal, first-half profit of roughly $146,000. Magazines: Still Climbing ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/archive/6889295/magazines-still-climbing/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/archive/6889295/magazines-still-climbing/"},"headline":"Magazines: Still Climbing","datePublished":"1966-08-12T04:00:00.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-19T18:27:40.598Z","description":"As final reports trickled in, U.S. magazine publishers totted up their best half-year profits ever. For the first time since 1961, Curtis Publishing reported a six-month net profit of $368,000; ad...","url":"https://time.com/archive/6889295/magazines-still-climbing/","keywords":[],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME","url":"https://time.com/author/time/"}],"articleSection":"U.S.","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/us/","name":"U.S."}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/archive/6889295/magazines-still-climbing/","name":"Magazines: Still Climbing"}}]}] ```