B2B Gets Back To Business, Posts Strong Page Gain In October

Signaling some year-end momentum for what has been a volatile 2004 B-to-B ad marketplace, ad pages in the business press increased in October after declining in September, according to estimates released Saturday by American Business Media. The October surge, which drove ad pages up 4.6 percent and ad revenues up 8.1 percent over October 2003, indicates the B-to-B marketplace should end the year in the black.

Ad pages are up 0.9 percent and ad dollars are up 3.3 percent through the first ten months of the year, according to the data compiled by the Business Information Network.

"The fourth quarter numbers are coming in at the range we had expected," stated Gordon Hughes, president and CEO of ABM, who forecasted that 2004 would wrap up with B-to-B revenue growth in the "2 percent to 4 percent" range.

Eight ad categories showed increases in ad pages for October compared with the same period in 2003. Automotive led the way with a 15.2 percent increase, followed closely by Finance, Business & Advertising, up 13.6 percent. Retail was up 9.5 percent; Telecommunications up 8.8 percent; Home & Building up 6.9 percent; Software up 3.1 percent and Computers up 2.1 percent.

Services, Direct Response & Classified showed the biggest loss with a 7.9 percent decline. Travel was down 4.3 percent and Manufacturing & Electrical Equipment, Materials & Components off 2.0 percent.

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