National newspaper advertising declined by just over 33% last year, according to figures released by the National Newspapers of Ireland (NNI). Almost €208 million was spent on advertising across the 18 members titles of NNI in 2009, compared with €314 million in 2008.

The decline in advertising revenue was sharpest during the first six months of 2009, however a slowdown in the rate of decline during the latter half of the year – coupled with a positive start to 2010 – has been described as encouraging by NNI.

‘2009 was a tough year for every industry, including newspaper,‘ said Maeve Donovan, Chairman of NNI. ‘ But even though our overall ad revenues were down, we can be encouraged by the fact that agencies and advertisers still invested more than €200 million across our range of titles.

‘In what’s generally acknowledged to have been one of the most difficult years for business since the early 1980’s, that’s a very substantial level of investment,‘ she said.

‘There was also an improvement during the second half of 2009, when both agency and direct spending fell by considerably less that in the first six months of the year,’ Ms Donovan went on. ‘That’s been carried thorugh to the new year market, and it’s something we can take heart from as we face into what’s bound to be another challenging year.’

The advertising revenue figures were released as part of the NNI’s annual ‘agency league table’ of press advertising spenders. The 2009 league was one of the most closely-fought affairs in years, with agency giants Carat and Mindshare running neck ad neck for most of 2009.

Carat consolidates no.1 spot

In the end however, it was Carat who came out on top with a total press advertising spend of €17.48million to seal the coveted number one agency position.

Mindshare came in second, having invested a total of €16.64 million on newspaper advertising in 2009 – a decline of less than 13% over 2008 – while MCM Communcations and OMD Ireland occupied the remaining positions in the top five.

The highest increase award went to Starcom who bucked the trend by increasing their press spend by almost €1m or 12.82% in 2009.

‘As our league table shows, ad agencies are also suffering the impact of the financial crisis but they – and their clients – are still clearly tuned in to the strenghts of the press advertising medium,’ said NNI’s Maeve Donovan.

‘Last year out readership passed 3 million people so when it comes to mass reach, flexibility of options, the capability to target and above all consumer engagement, advertisers know that newspapers deliver results,’ she said.