Although growth in spending online has more than halved year on year, the internet is still set to outperform the largest of the advertising sectors: newspapers.

A spokesman for the AA said he expected internet advertising spend to eclipse TV and then newspapers both in 2009.

Advertising spend in newspapers declined 12% year on year, according to the figures, partly due to classifieds being cannibalised by online, but with the precarious state of the property and car markets amplifying the decline.

However, newspapers still took 25% market share, followed by TV (23%), Internet (20%), direct mail (12%), magazines (10%), outdoor (6%), radio (3%) and cinema (1%). Overall ad spend fell 3.9% for the year, although this precipitated into a 9.6% decline for the fourth quarter.

A spokesperson for Ford Britain, which buys advertising in all these markets, said "With the whole car market an average 26 per cent down in Jan/Feb 2009, and the industry reducing production and workforce as a result, lower revenues mean a proportional cut in marketing spend.

"At Ford this is across all platforms, with online the least affected. So budgets are under extreme pressure but Ford has to continue updating buyers on its latest range and offers.  Non-core marketing projects and similar opportunities have to be re-evaluated.  Cost effective media such as online are being reappraised."

The AA said that it expected the next quarter to show a lesser decline and for things to turn around next year.

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Spending power is staying power