The Newspaper Association of America has reported its preliminary figures on newspaper advertising for 2006, with a slight decrease in the sale of print advertising contrasted by a huge uptick in the sale of online advertising for newspaper sites.

While the print side saw a modest 3.7 percent decrease to $13.2 billion in 2006, online ad sales for newspaper sites shot up 31.5 percent to almost $2.7 billion, according to the NAA, MediaPost reports.

NAA also said Q4 digital ad sales grew to $745.5 million, up 35 percent from the year-earlier period, marking the 11th straight quarter of double-digit growth for the online sector since the NAA began tracking newspaper advertising sales in 2004.

The large jump in online ad sales is somewhat offset by the fact that they still only account for 5.4 percent of all newspaper ad sales. Total ad sales fell 2.2 percent in the fourth quarter, to $14 billion.