Some £161.5 million (€203 million) was spent on advertising in the 11 member titles of the National Newspapers of Ireland (NNI) last year. This represented record growth of 25 per cent on the previous year.

The NNI figures show revenue received from advertising agencies contributed £93.7 million, while revenue from classified and small ads contributed £67.7 million.

"Quite obviously these figures show that the power of the newspaper advertising medium is well established," said Mr Louis O'Neill, chairman of the NNI. "Even in the context of our boom economy, a 25 per cent growth over 1997 is extraordinary," he added.

Topping the NNI agency league table for the fifth consecutive year was McConnells with a spend of £9.1 million, which represented an increase of 22 per cent on the year before. For the second year running, Des O'Meara & Partners received the highest increase award with a spend of £6.9 million, an increase of almost £2 million on the year before.