At a time where stories of magazine closures and dwindling ad revenues have become the norm, food magazine Saveur remains one shiny beacon of hope for the industry.

Yesterday, publisher Merri Lee Kingsly announced that the culinary mag had just produced its largest June/July issue in the publication’s 15-year history with 22 percent more ad pages and 14 new advertisers compared to last year.

This month’s issue is just the latest taste of Saveur‘s <a href="incredible ad page growth this year: the Ellie-winning magazine is up 11 percent in ad pages year to date. Kingsly credited the boost to the pub’s alliance with Virtuoso, an international network of luxury travel agencies. Who said the luxury ad market was dead?

“We strongly believe in staying true to our mission by offering unique programs for each type of client — it’s the only way to reach and remain true to our readers,” Kingsly said in a statement.

And in related news, The Los Angeles Times has a story today about printed news aggregator The Week, which has sold 10 percent more ads in 2009 compared to last year. It’s heartening to hear that there are still advertisers out there.

Earlier: Food Magazine Gobbles Up Ad Pages

Full Saveur release after the jump

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It looks like there is at least one magazine in New York that is not cutting back staff. In fact, new magazine Food Network Magazine is actually promoting current staff and bringing on new hires.

Despite being introduced in the midst of the great magazine die off last year with two newsstand-only test issues in October 2008 and January 2009, Food Network is thriving. The magazine, which recently announced a huge rate base increase, revealed some staff promotions and new hires today on both the edit and business sides.

Editor-in-chief Maile Carpenter is promoting features editor Tracy Saelinger to deputy editor and moving senior editor Liz Sgroi up to food editor. In addition, two new senior editors are being brought on board: Mary Kate McGrath — former design market editor at InStyle — and Jonathan Stern – formerly of Joshspear.com, Stuff magazine and Penthouse.

Read on to learn more about Food Network‘s staffing changes and the state of some other culinary magazines.

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