National newspaper advertising grew by 12 per cent to £119 million (€151 million) in the first half of the year, according to the National Newspapers of Ireland (NNI).

Of the £119 million spent in the NNI's 11 member titles during the period, advertising agencies accounted for £68 million, with the remaining £51 million being generated from classified and small ads.

The strong growth of last year was maintained this year, with good activity in the first quarter which saw unseasonably strong growth of 15 per cent.

Despite low levels of activity arising from the dramatic impact of foot-and-mouth disease, growth for the second quarter was still ahead by 9 per cent.

However, several NNI members benefited from increased advertising spend because of the large number of Government warning and information advertisements run in this period.

"Even though commentators have forecasted a general advertising slowdown, which in large part must be attributed to heady comparisons of 2000 and a growing sense of economic pessimism, newspaper spend still continued to outpace the overall market in the first half," said chairman of the NNI, Mr Gavin O'Reilly.

But he added that "the spectacular advertising growth in specialist technology, telecoms and IT recruitment continued to be adversely impacted by the remarkable implosion of the dotcom bubble".

Brindley Advertising topped the NNI agency league table for the first time.

Its spend of £6.6 million represents a very significant increase of £2.3 million on the first half of last year.

Its chairman attributed the rise in revenue to the work of agency's staff, plus substantial increases in business across the board.