• by Joe Mandese  @mp_joemandese, November 29, 2005

The B-to-B media marketplace pulled out of its summer doldrums in September, posting the first ad pages gains for the business press in months. Business ad pages climbed 1.96 percent over September 2004, according to estimates compiled by the Business Information Network, a unit of American Business Media. That's the first gain since June 2005, and brings the year-to-date B-to-B ad page growth rate up to 2.12 percent.

The data indicate that trade publications are outpacing their consumer counterparts, which experienced a 2.1 percent drop in ad pages in October--the most recent month reported by the Publishers Information Bureau--and a modest gain of 0.3 percent for the first 10 months of 2005.

The ABM attributed September's hike to especially strong gains by the banking/financial/insurance and travel/conventions/meetings categories, which had ad pages increases of 22.63 percent and 19.08 percent, respectively. Year-to-date, automotive and banking/financial/insurance are the leading categories--with page increases of 20.20 percent and 14.58 percent, respectively.

Ad pages are only one component of revenues for business publishers, which generally are reaping faster rates of growth from online adverting sales and conferences and trade shows. The ABM reports that data separately.