Jump for joy! Fashion magazines aren't back to pre-recession levels, but they're definitely no longer on the brink.

Just in case any influencers out there needed a reminder that Vogue can cover the cost of a consumer panel, going by the number of ad pages sold and current ad rates, Vogue‘s September issue alone will account for more than $92 million in revenue. It will have an impressive 584 ad pages – not anywhere near the September 2007 record of 727 ad pages, but more than any other women’s fashion magazine this year.

Glamour, the Conde Nast sister publication which has more online influence than Vogue, has a relatively low 240 pages but will still bring in “more revenue than any issue in its history” thanks to 2-D bar codes that readers can photograph with their phone cameras to “like” advertisers on Facebook. Most other magazines reported year over year increases, but Elle reported a decline, widely believed to be due to the larger than average influx for last year’s anniversary issue. {AdAge}

*Note that for Harper’s Bazaar, the 1-page color ad rate “doesn’t apply” for March and September, indicating that the magazine likely gets more per page in those issues. All revenue estimates are not inclusive of agency fees or repetition discounts which can lower revenue; nor are they inclusive of pull outs, special inserts or multi-channel promotions like the Glamour offering, which can increase revenue.

Branson beat Murdoch on the iPad only media draw, but will either be a viable solution to the revenue challenges print media has faced from the internet?

Along with all those magazines, there have been rumblings as of late concerning Rupert Murdoch’s latest publication, a newspaper built specifically for the iPad. The publication will be called The Daily, and will be just that, a daily newspaper for the iPad. To set it apart from other excellent papers on the iPad, The Daily will only be available on the iPad, no print or web version at all. Murdoch’s News Corp has been spending a lot of time putting the publication together, getting about 100 journalists including a few big names to work on the project. {Electronista}

Not to be outdone by Murdoch, however, Virgin CEO Richard Branson started his own publication, Project, an iPad-only magazine. Branson’s Project was just launched today with a free app with one issue that costs $2.99. While the Project magazine is iPad-only, there is a blog that is available on the web as well as through the app. The magazine even cheekily tells reader to think of the blog s a “Project Daily.” The magazine itself will be monthly as opposed to the daily issues of Murdoch’s approach. {Project}

These publications aren’t the first to come out for the iPad, and certainly won’t be the last. What makes this perceived battle between Murdoch and Branson interesting is that it will test just how viable the iPad is as a means of publication (and other tablets, as well, though the iPad is the most popular and uniform at the moment). Neither approach gives up-to-the minute content you’d expect from a blog or online news source, but the rich media lends itself well to the iPad. It could turn out that both or neither publication is successful, but that lacks the drama of the Branson vs Murdoch fight we’d love to see play out.

Well, we found a little something that makes the future of magazines look not just alive, but downright awesome. May we present to you Mag+, a concept design for a portable tablet eReader made from the collaborative juices of the designers at BERG and Bonnier R&D (the publishers of Popular Science).

As it’s designed right now, the Mag+ tablet has a touchscreen you can use to scroll vertically within an article and horizontally between stories. It’s a simple, uncluttered look - but you can also “heat up” the device (by rubbing it with your finger) to connect to web sites to share pictures, comment on stories, or dig up supplementary material.

But, more importantly, it looks frickin’ awesome. Don’t believe us? Check out the snazzy video.

Read More {Switched}

Read More {BERG}