Vienna, Va. – Advertising expenditures for newspapers and their Web sites totaled $12 billion for the third quarter of 2005, a 2.4 percent year-over-year increase, according to preliminary estimates from the Newspaper Association of America. Spending for print ads in newspapers totaled $11.4 billion, up 1.6 percent versus the same period a year earlier, while ad spending online continued its double-digit growth in the third quarter, increasing by 26.7 percent from the same period a year ago to $518.9 million. “The positive trend in retail and classified shows advertisers’ continued confidence in newspapers as an effective medium for reaching home buyers, job seekers and other prospective customers through core newspapers and a growing variety of a brand extensions,” said NAA President and CEO John F. Sturm. “Newspapers’ print and online products are in a strong position as we enter the fourth quarter and holiday season. We anticipate even greater gains in online as newspapers continue to rank at the top of the most visited online news sources in the nation.” Among the print categories, classified advertising was up 5.5 percent to $4.2 billion, and retail ad spending rose 0.9 percent to 5.3 billion. National advertising was down 4.7 percent, coming in at $1.8 billion, to which the NAA attributes to declines in telecomm, travel and motion picture advertising. Within the classified print category, real estate ad spending climbed 13.1 percent to $1.2 billion. Recruitment advertising was up 12.3 percent to $1.2 billion. Automotive was down 4.8 percent to $1.0 billion. All other classifieds were down slightly 0.1 percent to $698 million. “Advertisers continue to recognize the appeal of print for the classified ad category, while real estate should continue to do well through the rest of the year,” said NAA Vice President of Business Analysis and Research Jim Conaghan. For the first nine months of the year, total print and online ad spending totaled $35.1 billion, an increase of 2.9 percent. Total print ad spending in newspapers increased 2.0 percent to $33.6 billion. Also among the print categories, classified lead the way with a 4.8 percent gain to $12.0 billion. Retailers increased ad spending in newspapers 1.7 percent to $15.8 billion, and national ad spending was down 2.7 percent to $5.8 billion. In classified for the first nine months, recruitment ad spending rose 13.5 percent to $3.6 billion, and real estate jumped 7.1 percent to $3.1 billion. Automotive classified dropped 5.0 percent to $3.2 billion and all other classified rose 4.3 percent to $2.0 billion.