Arlington, Va.—First-quarter ad spending for newspaper Web sites grew 22% to $750 million, from $613 million in the year-earlier period, according to preliminary estimates from the Newspaper Association of America.

The increase marked the 12th consecutive quarter of double-digit growth for online newspaper advertising since NAA began to report those figures in 2004.

Advertising on Web sites made up 7.1% of total newspaper ad spending in the first quarter, compared with 5.5% during the same period last year.

The increase in ad spending on newspaper Web sites was not enough to offset an overall decline in ad spending on newspapers. Total newspaper ad expenditures in the first quarter fell 4.8% to $10.6 billion, from $11.1 billion in the year-earlier period. Spending for print ads in newspapers declined 6.4% to $9.8 billion, from $10.5 billion in last year’s first quarter.

Among the major print components in the first quarter, real estate advertising dropped 14.2%, to $953.0 million and recruitment fell 14.3% to $975.3 million. All other classifieds were down 0.5% to $699.3 million.

The NAA’s member companies account for 87% of the daily newspaper circulation in the U.S.

—Matthew Schwartz