BURGEONING GROWTH on the internet helped overcome a slump in newspapers to lift overall spending on advertising in the UK by 4.2 per cent last year, figures released yesterday showed.

The UK Advertising Association released its statistics for the year, showing that the press remained the premier market for advertisers, with £7.71 billion (€9.73 billion) of the total of £19.4 billion spent in newspapers and magazines - down 1.9 per cent on 2006.

Figures from newspaper companies for the first five months of this year suggest the decline will sharpen in 2008.

Internet advertising soared, however, with 40 per cent more money spent online than in the previous year, accounting for 15.6 per cent of all advertising.

Analysts are already predicting that the total online spending of £3.03 billion in 2007 - beating previous estimates by more than £200 million - will take a bigger jump this year, perhaps overtaking television advertising revenues. - (Financial Times service)