A "bumpy ride" awaits B2B publishers as they face competition from alternative sources of information, such as search companies and content aggregators, according to a new MarketView report released Monday by research company Outsell, reports BtoB Online. The study, based on an online survey of some 4,000 business purchasers of information, found a significant drop in spending on news and trade information over the past four years.

This year, spending on news and trade information is expected to make up only 12 percent of business users' total information purchases, down from 28 percent in 2001.