B to B ad pages in U.S. continue slow slide

The total year-to-date erosion of advertising in U.S. business-to-business magazines has been about 2.5%, according to a report from American Business Media. Pages dropped 2.8% in April from April a year ago. While reported revenue drops have been smaller, that is based on the assumption that magazines are staying on rate card. Accentuating the positive, Gordon T. Hughes II, president and CEO of ABM, pointed to other, growing revenue sources:

"As we move into the second quarter of 2007, the story remains the same. Print remains stable, while we see tremendous growth from events, custom media and of course, e-Media."

According to an item in MediaDaily News, among the stronger B-to-B print advertising categories in April were the architecture, design, lighting category, with a year-to-date increase in ad revenue of 14.7%; the pharmaceutical category with a 13.4% increase; and the resources, environment, utilities category with an 11.2% increase.