The latest BIN numbers
released by American Business Media make for grim reading.
Ad revenues in B2B magazines were down 6% in first half 2008 to $5.12
billion from the levels seen in first half 2007, $5.45 billion.
The number of ad pages declined by 8% during the same period falling to
434,000 from 472,000. Trade show
revenue was more resilient but still showed a 1% decline.
Out of the 21 BIN categories, only 5 showed growth. Agriculture was up 6.08%; Architecture, Design, Lighting climbed 1.99%; MFG, Processing rose by 0.61%, Miscellaneous grew by 1.53%, and Professional Services finished 1.82% higher.
The five biggest losers by revenue for the first half were Automotive (down 16.1%); Computing, Software, Telecomm (lower by 13.6%); Electronic Engineering (off 13.89%); Government (decreasing 10.63%), and Transportation, Logistics (down 9.95%).
Gordon T. Hughes II, President/CEO of American Business Media, said, “Considering the current state of the economy, b-to-b media has held up well. B-to-B media information companies continue to broaden their portfolios to satisfy market needs such as digital products, custom media and data.”
That may be overly kind. With the exception of agriculture, the few categories that grew did so within what you could call a rounding error. Meanwhile, the downside saw double digit declines. This suggests that we haven’t hit bottom yet – although it’s definitely closer than it was.
What’s also troubling is the accelerating rate of decline. The 6% drop off between first half of 2007 and first half of 2008 is much bigger than the 1.4% dip between 2006’s first six months and 2007’s.
With Wall Street coming cap in hand to Uncle Sam, the world has entered uncharted waters, and if anyone says he knows what conditions will look like 6 months from now when the full year numbers will come out, he’s lying. A betting man, though, would probably put a small wager on things being a little worse than they are right now in the B2B market. Business confidence takes a long time to restore, and it may be awhile before demand for ad space rises.
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