• by Michael Shields , November 24, 2004

Business-to-business ad pages declined 2.2 percent in September according to a report from American Business Media, halting a two-month period of solid growth. Ad spending was down 1.9 percent for the month.

"September was a disappointment, given the strength of the July and August numbers," said Gordon Hughes, president and CEO of American Business Media, in a statement. "We are still forecasting that we will end the year with 2 percent to 4 percent revenue growth."

For the year, growth has been slight thus far, with revenue up 1.5 percent and pages up just 0.3 percent.

Three categories showed an increase in ad pages in September: telecommunications (17.4 percent), drugs and toiletries (3.9 percent), and home and building (1.3 percent).

Yet travel pages skidded by 13.8 during the month, and other categories saw double-digit declines: services, direct response and classified; manufacturing and electrical equipment; materials and components; and computers down 11.4 percent.