Ad revenue for business-to-business publications continues to grow - and the driver of growth is not print but online and digital editions, as well as events and trade shows - according to a new report, writes MediaPost. A new section in investment banker Veronis Suhler Stevenson's just-released annual Communications Industry Forecast documents the growth of non-traditional B2B revenue sources, noting that media spending in the e-media realm had increased 26.5 percent in 2005.

Although accounting for small share of B2B spending compared with magazines (8.4 percent to 47.7 percent, respectively), e-media is expected to be "the fastest growing sub-segment in 2005 and throughout the forecast period." B2B magazine media spending is projected to grow only 2.7 percent in 2005, and 3.1-3.8 percent over the next four years; however, trade shows and exhibitions will make a gain of 6.1 percent this year - and 5.5-6.0 percent over the next four years.