The Belfast Telegraph’s revenue from digital advertising and sponsorship increased by 62% year on year for the second half of 2008.

Being highly accountable, more advertisers are recognising the potential return that can be generated from on-line advertising. As a result the Belfast Telegraph is taking more business from both local and national advertising agencies.

Sponsorship is also an important area and recent deals have included BT Vision’s sponsorship of the Pick the Score competition, which allows readers to attempt to predict match outcomes in the Magners League for a chance to win a cash prize.

Sponsorship is also being currently sought for the on-line coverage of the Rugby Schools Cup.

This highly popular section features video coverage of matches, news reports and picture galleries of matches past and present.

Another example is Abbey Insurance, which has taken a banner that clicks through to its homepage on the crime map — which shows a breakdown of different types of offences committed across different Northern Ireland wards. Bank of Scotland Ireland and Invest NI are also supporting business coverage.

All this is helping generate increased revenue from the news site.

Sam McIlveen, Independent News & Media (Northern Ireland) digital publisher, said: “We are seeing a marked increase in ad revenues over the past year and this looks set to continue in 2009 despite difficult economic conditions.

“Businesses can see the value in what we’re doing on the website and the fact that our web traffic has trebled in the last year shows that readers agree.”