• March 19, 2003

According to figures released today by American Business Media, ad dollars in the business-to-business category were up 2.9% compared to January 2002, while pages were down 5.4%. Eight of the 12 categories showed improvement in ad spending in January compared to the same period the year before. The Automotive sector led the way, with a 32.8% jump in ad dollars, followed by Travel, which was up 21.3%. Retail rose 18.2%; Home & Building was up 11.3%; Drugs & Toiletries up 10.1%; Services, Direct Response & Classified up 3.4%; Computers up 3.2%; and Finance, Business & Advertising up 2.2%. Leading the field in ad pages in January was the Automotive sector, up 15.9%. Travel was up 9.7%; Retail up 4.1%; and Computers up 1.9%. Telecommunications continued its downward slide, with a 41.6% decline.