• Folio, Wednesday, February 25, 2009 9:34 AM

Trade publications are not immune to the downturn in print advertising. Ad revenue for b-to-b magazines plunged 13.1% during the fourth quarter of 2008, leading to an overall slide of 7.3% percent, according to American Business Media. Ad pages fell 9.6% for the year--the sharpest decline since 2002, when pages slid 15%.

The results mirror those for consumer magazines, which saw ad pages drop 11.7% in 2008 and more than 17% in the fourth quarter.

Among the 22 industry categories tracked by American Business, five showed magazine growth in 2008: professional services; architecture and design; agriculture; transportation; aviation; and aerospace and military. The biggest loser is the automotive category, which declined 18.2% in terms of b-to-b marketing spending.

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