Vienna, Va. – Advertising expenditures for newspapers and their Web sites totaled $10.9 billion for the first quarter of 2005, a 3.6 percent year-over-year increase, according to preliminary estimates from the Newspaper Association of America (NAA). Spending for print ads in newspapers totaled $10.5 billion, up 2.4 percent versus the same period a year earlier, while ad spending online continued its double-digit growth in the first quarter, increasing by 39.7 percent from the same period a year ago to $455 million. “Newspapers continue to demonstrate a unique ability to deliver value to advertisers, both in the daily paper and across newspapers’ complementary media platforms,” said NAA President and CEO John F. Sturm. “Newspapers typically own the leading local information Internet sites in their markets, and the significant growth in online ad spending is a recognition of newspapers’ leadership position on the Web.” Among the print categories, classified advertising was up 3.5 percent to $3.7 billion, retail ad spending rose 2.8 percent to 4.9 billion, and national advertising was down slightly by 0.6 percent, coming in at $1.8 billion. Within the classified category, recruitment advertising climbed 14.7 percent to $1.1 billion. Real estate ad spending was down 0.3 percent to 880 million. Automotive dipped 4.8 percent to $1.1 billion. All other classifieds were up 7.2 percent to $628 million. “The growth in newspaper recruitment proves the ongoing appeal of print for the classified ad category,” said NAA Vice President of Business Analysis and Research Jim Conaghan. “With job creation proceeding at a good pace, recruitment advertising should continue to do well through the remainder of the year.”