Spending by advertisers with the 11 national newspapers rose by 19 per cent last year to £216 million (€274 million). The figure represents a high for the members of the National Newspapers of Ireland (NNI) and shows the titles are "going from strength to strength and reflect a positive trend over the last 10 years", said Mr Gavin O'Reilly, the chairman of the organisation.

Advertising with NNI members has doubled over the last five years, proving wrong "those people who foolishly predicted the end of the newspaper", said Mr O'Reilly. "Newspapers have redefined their role and advertisers have increasingly realised, more than ever, the power that the newspaper yields as a medium to sell," he said.

"No matter what technological achievements are made in electronic media, newspaper advertising still dominates." The 11 members of the National Newspapers of Ireland have a combined readership of 2.36 million. They are The Irish Times, Irish Independent, the Irish Examiner, the Star, Evening Echo, Evening Herald, Sunday Indpendent, Sunday World, the Sunday Business Post, the Sunday Tribune and the Irish Farmers Journal.

The NNI has also published a league table of spending with them by agencies which accounted for £129 million or 60 per cent of the total spend.

The highest spending agency was Mindshare/Ogilvy/ DDFH&B which spent £11 million, an increase of £3.5 million on the previous year. AIM/ Carat spent £9.7 million and Brindley spent £9.25 million. MCM Communications, which had been the highest spending agency for seven years in a row, was fourth last year, spending just under £8.1 million.