Encouraging numbers

The Newspaper Association of America reports an increase in ad spending for newspapers and their affiliated websites. Individuals and companies spent nearly $12 billion on ads for the third quarter of 2005. That's a 2.4 percent increase over the same period last year. While only $518 million of the $12 billion was for online advertising, that figure represents a 27 percent jump from last year's third quarter. Classified advertising spending increased 5.5 percent. While these numbers are encouraging, the report noted that ads from national advertisers decreased 4.7 percent.