The poor advertising conditions in the US business to business (B2B) publishing sector continued in January, with ad page volumes showing a 4.6% year on year decline. The latest data from American Business Media show that ad expenditure declined by 2.4%.
Only two categories showed positive adspend growth in the month: Services, direct response and classified, up by 18.3%, and finance, business and advertising, up by just 0.6%.
ABM is forecasting that the full year will see revenue growth of between 2% and 4%. Most of this growth is expected to come in the second half of the year.
US Business To Business Adspend By Sector, January 2004 | ||||
Jan-04 | Year To Date | |||
Revenue ($000) | Year On Year Change | Revenue ($000) | Year On Year Change | |
Finance, Business & Advertising | 71,893 | 0.6% | 71,893 | 20.0% |
Telecommunications | 6,379 | -6.3% | 6,379 | -1.7% |
Computers | 33,015 | -1.8% | 33,015 | -16.9% |
Software | 32,785 | -13.3% | 32,785 | -9.0% |
Manufacturing & Elec. Equip.,Mat’s & Components | 12,583 | -9.2% | 12,583 | -7.3% |
Drugs & Toiletries/PERQ | 69,203 | -2.7% | 69,203 | 3.9% |
Services, Direct Response, Classified | 71,989 | 18.3% | 71,989 | 11.4% |
Retail | 53,664 | -4.9% | 53,664 | 10.3% |
Home & Building | 80,099 | -6.7% | 80,099 | 3.6% |
Automotive | 14,784 | -15.0% | 14,784 | 13.1% |
Travel | 14,966 | -15.9% | 14,966 | -5.1% |
Total | 461,360 | -2.5% | 461,360 | 0.7% |
Source: American Business Media, March 2004 |