• by Erik Sass  @eriksass1, December 6, 2006

Business media revenue is up about 1% for the latest year-to-date figures, according to American Business Media, with ad pages up 1.1% and revenue up 0.9% for January-September compared to the same period last year. In monthly terms, September actually saw a slight dip of over 1%, but the strong performance in previous months is keeping the industry in the black.

If the overall trend holds up, the figures mean the print publications monitored by ABM could end the year on an up note--and magazines will again defy the conventional wisdom that "print is dead." Ad categories leading revenue growth for business publications are "resources, environment and utilities," up 9.8%, "architecture design and lighting," up 9.5%, and "building, engineering, and construction," up 8.6%.

But it's not all good news: some categories are showing long-term declines, likely because of competition from the Internet. "Computing, software, and telecoms" is receiving a drubbing, with revenue down 5.6% and ad pages 4.8% for the year-to-date. Meanwhile, "science, research, and development" is down 4.9% and 5.59% by the same measures.