K Street's boom goes bust

K Street boom days have come and gone. A bad economy and rigid stalemates on Capitol Hill took its toll on big firms for the second year in a row, with seven out of the 10 biggest lobbying groups reporting flat or negative revenues in 2011, a significant contrast with the double-digit growth many of the same firms experienced in the mid-2000s, according to recently filed federal lobbying reports.

And the stagnant revenues aren’t expected to pick up in the coming year with the economy still slow and an even bigger change afoot in the industry. Fights are no longer just about which side has the most — or best — lobbyists. The new world of Washington influence is more diverse: Traditional access lobbying is waged alongside campaigns that use media, grass-roots activism and the Internet — activity often not reported in federal lobbying filings.