U.S. B2B revenues grew 3.4% in 2012, despite print ad decline

American Business Media reports that total 2012 B2B revenues in the U.S. grew 3.4% to $25.5 billion, with much of that increase the result of digital advertising, which increased 15.9% to $4.1 billion, and events (e.g. trade shows) which increased 4.4% to $11.7 billion. Print revenues fell 4.8% to $7.5 billion. B2B events contributed about 46% of total revenues,  print advertising about 29%, digital about 16% and data and business info about 9%.

"Delving more deeply into the year-end print report, the [ABM] data reveals that only two vertical segments – agriculture and travel/events – showed an increase in both ad pages and total revenue in 2012. Another six of the 22 total verticals included in the survey managed to grow print ad revenue even as total ad folio shrank. The remaining 14 verticals saw aggregate print ad pages and revenue decline. That’s over a total of 6,044 business magazines currently published in the United States."

(The data is compiled from a number of sources; for instance, print ads provided by Inquiry Management Systems, trade show data by the Center for Exhibition Industry Research and digital information from the Interactive Advertising Bureau. Historical charts and data are published on the Business Information Network page of the ABM site.)

60.5% of B2B CEOs surveyed in January said they expected business conditions to be even better next year, while 37% were neutral and 2% negative.