• by Joe Mandese  @mp_joemandese, January 24, 2006

The B-to-B media marketplace continued its turnaround in November 2005, recording a 1.9 percent jump in ad pages over November 2004, according to estimates released late Monday by the Business Information Network, a unit of American Business Media. That brings the year-to-date ad page growth rate for business publishers to 3.6 percent over the first 11 months of 2004, and sets the business media marketplace up for its first year of firm volume growth since the 2001 recession.

"The year is finishing up better than we anticipated," Gordon Hughes, president-CEO of the ABM stated, noting that the organization had been projecting a revenue rise of nearly 5 percent for the year, and that total ad page volume now is poised to grow about 2 percent.

Key growth categories include banking/financial/insurance and travel/conventions/meetings, which had year-to-date revenue increases of 25 percent and 24 percent respectively.

Ad page increases for a number of other categories were also strong. Year-to-date figures for the architecture/design/lighting category rose 23 percent over the same period in 2004, while the automotive category increased 17%.

During 2005, the ABM also began reporting revenue derived from digital media sales and conferences and trade shows, but has not released an update of that information in several months. However, alternative sources have been surpassing ad page growth as a source of revenues for business publishers.