Barclay Brothers top Publishing Rich List

The twins also own the Ritz hotel, in London, and the Littlewoods mail order business.

The 20 publishing and advertising millionaires listed in the table below are among 1,000 richest people in Britain in the definitive annual guide to wealth to be published in an extra 104-page magazine free with The Sunday Times this weekend. The richest sportsmen will appear in The Sunday Times Sport Rich List 2012 published on May 6.

London-based Cristina Stenbeck, 34, who was born and raised in New York, is the wealthiest woman among Britain’s richest publishers, with a £369m fortune. After the sudden death of her father in 2002, Stenbeck became steward of the family's interests at the Swedish-based Investment AB Kinnevik media and telecoms group, best known for its stable of Metro free newspapers (which doesn't include UK Metro).

WPP boss Sir Martin Sorrell, 67, is Britain’s wealthiest advertising mogul with a fortune of £174m, up from £148m last year. Sorrell has built WPP into the world’s largest marketing services group. His stake in WPP is worth £156m.

Neil Hutchinson, 34, who founded the London-based online advertising business TrafficBroker, now Forward Internet, has seen his fortune more than double in the past year from £59m to £123m.

THE SUNDAY TIMES RICH LIST 2012

THE RICHEST IN PUBLISHING AND ADVERTISING

1. Sir David and Sir Frederick Barclay (2012 wealth: £2,250m)

2. Richard Desmond (£1,000m)

3. Viscount Rothermere and family (£760m)

4. The Thomson family (£700m)

5. Paddy McNally (£515m)

6= Viscount Cowdray and the Pearson family (£500m)

6= Felix Dennis (£500m)

8. Cristina Stenbeck (£369m)

9. Mark Getty and family (£330m)

10. Mike Danson (£310m)

11. Lord Iliffe and family (£266m)

12. Sir Martin Sorrell (£174m)

13. Mike Luckwell (£135m)

14. Philip and Patricia Brown (£132m)

15. Lord and Charles Saatchi (£130m)

16. Sir Ray Tindle (£125m)

17. Neil Hutchinson (£123m)

18. Nick Forman Hardy and family (£102m)

19. Alan Parker (£95m)

20. Gregory Nasmyth and family (£85m)

The 24th annual Sunday Times Rich List – the “definitive” guide to wealth in Britain and Ireland – is published on Sunday, April 29 in an extra 104-page magazine, which profiles the 1,000 richest people and families in the UK and the 250 wealthiest in the island of Ireland.  The list is based on identifiable wealth (land, property, other assets such as art and racehorses, or significant shares in publicly quoted companies), and excludes bank accounts (to which the paper has no access). 

The Sunday Times Rich List 2011 is compiled by Philip Beresford, the leading authority on British wealth, and edited by Ian Coxon.