• by Wayne Friedman , July 8, 2014

Business-to-business media and information companies posted modest gains in revenue in the first quarter of 2014. Business media revenues climbed 4.5% to $7.09 billion for the first three months of the year, according to the Association of Business Information & Media Companies.

Most of the gains came from soaring double-digit percentage digital advertising sales -- 19.5% higher than the first quarter of 2013.

The report looks at four general sources of revenue: trade shows and conferences (events); print advertising; digital advertising; and business information products and database services (data).

Outside of digital revenues, the best performance came from database and information services -- up 4.6% -- with event revenue 2.9% higher. Print revenue decreased 2.6%.

In 2013, the business-to-business media and information industry grew 4.8% to $26.85 billion, compared to a 2.7% rise in 2012, which totaled $25.62 billion.

Mike Marchesano, managing director for Association of Business Information & Media Companies, stated: “We expect this trend to continue as the popularity of online video and mobile rises, and as companies and consumers increasingly look to tablets and smartphones as a primary source of information.”

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