B2B Boxscores (November '03): Foodservice Stays in the Black--and in the Green.

It seems that more positive signs are showing up in B2B by the day; positive signs of another kind--the plus sign kind--have become a regular feature in our monthly review of the Foodservice magazine sector. It isn't that every book is doing great--note, for instance, the nine double-digit year-to-date ad-page declines below in our group of 31 CMR-tracked titles--but, as a whole, the category in November 2003 continued on its positive note, with YTD ad pages (+1.59%) and ad revenues (+4.93%) again both repeating in the up column. These marks, respectively, are each about a half-percentage point off the sector's YTD results for October, and they're each a point or two off September's pace. But they're up, not down and we suspect that, if they keep to the recent pattern of being up, not down, then foodservice publishers may be resting easier in the months ahead. Downside: It will be interesting to monitor what impact, if any, the mad cow disease scare out West has on the fortunes of Sosland Publishing's Meat & Poultry, Watt Publishing's Meat Processing, and other titles.

 
FOOD SERVICE AD PAGES AND REVENUES (January -- November) 
                                      YTD        YTD        % Chg. 
    PUBLICATIONS                      2003       2002       YTD 
1   Beverage Aisle                    189.5      316.67     -40.16 
2   Candy Industry                    259.17     307.08     -15.6 
3   Convenience Store Decisions       456.42     776.75     -41.24 
4   Convenience Store News            816.51     937.99     -12.95 
5   CSP Convenience Store Petroleum   1,017.00   774.16     31.37 
6   Fancy Food & Culinary Products    130.29     101.67     28.14 
7   Food Management                   602.58     589.83     2.16 
8   Food Manufacturing                201.74     171.06     17.93 
9   Food Processing                   562.75     501.83     12.14 
10  Food Product Design               778.08     733.3      6.11 
11  Foodservice Equipment & Supplies  435.5      415.16     4.9 
12  Frozen Food Age                   365.02     428.1      -14.73 
13  Gourmet News                      185.39     243.68     -23.92 
14  Gourmet Retailer The              893.4      917.85     -2.66 
15  Grocery Headquarters              803.25     759.16     5.81 
16  ID Sales Pro                      143.25     298.58     -52.02 
17  Meat & Poultry                    496.74     382.91     29.73 
18  Meat Processing                   578.99     502.05     15.33 
19  National Provisioner              719.33     653.33     10.1 
20  Nation's Restaurant News          2,020.26   1,900.92   6.28 
21  New Products Magazine             305.69     268.5      13.85 
22  Private Label                     250.33     247.16     1.28 
23  Private Label Buyer               398.35     355.83     11.95 
24  Professional Candy Buyer          174.08     223        -21.94 
25  Progressive Grocer                765.62     702.9      8.92 
26  Refrigerated & Frozen Foods       394.83     345.08     14.42 
27  Restaurant Business               846.08     962        -12.05 
28  Restaurant Hospitality            714.21     672.16     6.25 
29  Restaurants & Institutions        1,166.66   1,276.02   -8.57 
30  Specialty Food Magazine           310.58     243.25     27.68 
31  Supermarket News                  1,413.15   1,099.62   28.51 
     TOTALS                           18,394.75  18,107.64  1.59 
 
                                      % Chg.  Revenue      Revenue 
    PUBLICATIONS                      NOV.#   2003         2002 
1   Beverage Aisle                    N/C     1,343,756    2,249,775 
2   Candy Industry                    8.94    1,575,756    1,887,248 
3   Convenience Store Decisions       -23.83  5,180,092    8,989,456 
4   Convenience Store News            -3.58   10,907,015   12,481,772 
5   CSP Convenience Store Petroleum   36.81   10,361,325   7,474,286 
6   Fancy Food & Culinary ...