Advertising agencies spent almost exactly as much in the third quarter of 2010 on national newspaper advertising as they did during the same period last year, indicating that the press advertising market – though still in decline – is continuing to stabilise.

Latest figures released by National Newspapers of Ireland (NNI) show that agencies spent a total of €27.77 million on national newspaper advertising between July and September this year – a decline of just 0.3% compared with 2009 figures. The corresponding decline between 2009 and 2008 was more than 36%.

While agency spending remains on a steady path, however, direct advertising continues to suffer with a drop of more than 10% during the third quarter of this year. According to NNI, the struggling non-agency market is the major contributor to an overall decline in national newspaper advertising.

“Our overall ad revenue was down by 4% this quarter and by 8% in the year to date, and there’s no doubt that the continuing decline in direct spending is dragging those overall revenues down,” said NNI’s Frank Cullen.

“Then again, this time last year we were talking about a drop in overall revenue of 31% in the quarter and 38% in the year to date, so the ship has certainly steadied over the past 12 months,” said Mr Cullen. “The fact that agency spending has stablilised is a very encouraging sign and we would hope for more of the same in Q4.”