As they close a brutal year, many magazines are able to make a claim they haven’t in a long time: Ad pages are up in the fourth quarter, MediaWeek reported.

With a last-minute push from food, beauty and auto marketers, many titles saw an uptick in ad pages, or at least smaller declines. Hearst’s Good Housekeeping managed a 6.5 percent increase in December. American Express Publishing’s Food & Wine posted a 1 percent increase in December. And Time Inc. is seeing fourth-quarter improvements in 14 of its 19 ad categories.

Looking at results by company, Meredith Corp. was one of the best performers, with five titles that were up in pages for 2009 and four that were down. For the second half of 2009 (the first half of Meredith’s 2010 fiscal year), Meredith’s overall pages were up 2.9 percent versus the year-ago period.

“Food and beverage is up. They’re spending more in the fourth quarter, knowing people are hunkering down more at home,” said Stephanie George, Time Inc.’s president of advertising sales and marketing. “Domestic auto has been incredible this year. It’s nowhere near what it once was, but we’re really bouncing back. The beauty companies are being more aggressive for the holiday season.”

With the majority of titles’ full-year results in, ad pages were down 21.7 percent for 2009 versus 2008, per the Mediaweek Monitor. Business, travel and shelter titles generally fared worse while entertainment, food and women’s and men’s lifestyle magazines’ declines were smaller.

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