ADVERTISING revenue for national daily, Sunday and weekly newspapers rose to a record £91.9 million last year, an increase of 4.7 per cent on 1994 figures, according to National Newspapers of Ireland (NNI) which represents 11 titles.

Mr Louis O'Neill, chairman of NNI said there was significant overall growth even though revenue earned by the three Irish Press titles was not available for inclusion in the 1995 figures. "Clearly, the indigenous newspaper sector is successfully withstanding extreme pressure from other media outlets in the advertising arena," he said.

Of the total amount, £49.6 million was placed by advertising agencies, with £42.3 million coming from the classified and small ads sector. Advertising agencies in the Republic spent £45 million, Northern Ireland agencies £700,000, while British and international agencies placed £3.8 million worth of ads.

McConnells advertising agency was the biggest single advertiser with the newspaper industry, spending £3.5 million in 1995, an increase of 32.5 per cent on the previous year.

All Ireland Media had the second largest advertising expenditure of £3.25 million, an increase of £1 million on 1994. The highest expenditure by an agency group was £4.2 million, from Ogilvy & Mather (Ireland) which comprises Bell Advertising and Wilson Hartnell Advertising.

The 11 newspapers represented by NNI are: the Cork Examiner, the Irish Independent, The Irish Times, the Star, the Evening Echo, the Evening Herald, the Sunday Independent, the Sunday Tribune, the Sunday World, the Sunday Business Post and the Irish Farmers' Journal.