Sir David and Frederick Barclay have been named at the top of a list of the richest people in publishing and advertising in Britain with a fortune of more than £2bn, while cost-cutting Richard Desmond has cemented second spot as his wealth hit £1bn.

The reclusive 77-year-old twins, owners of the Daily Telegraph and Sunday Telegraph, have been named at the top of the Sunday Times Rich List with assets valued at £2.25bn.

The brothers, who also own the Ritz Hotel and Littlewoods mail order business, increased their wealth by £50m over last year's rich list.

Northern & Shell owner Richard Desmond also increased his wealth, cracking the £1bn mark despite ordering sweeping cuts at Express Newspapers – home to the Daily Express, Sunday Express, Daily Star and Daily Star Sunday – to save cash.

Viscount Rothermere and family, controlling shareholder of Daily Mail publisher DMGT, increased their wealth by £30m to £760m to cement third spot.

The 20-strong list also includes Sir Martin Sorrell, the founder of the world's largest advertising group WPP, who saw his estimated wealth rise almost 18% year-on-year to £174m to rank 12th.

Alan Parker, the founder and chairman of Brunswick group, waved the flag for the PR industry with a £95m fortune to rank 19th.

One of the few to lose ground year-on-year was Ray Tindle, the owner of Tindle Newspapers and investor in the UK's second largest regional newspaper owner Johnston Press, who saw his wealth fall from £145m to £125m to rank 16th.

Sunday Times Rich List 2012 – top 20 in publishing and advertising

Wealth in 2012 (2011 figure in brackets)

1 Sir David and Sir Frederick Barclay £2,250 (£2,200m)

2 Richard Desmond £1,000 (£950m)

3 Viscount Rothermere and family £760m (£730m)

4 The Thomson family £700m (£660m)

5 Paddy McNally £515m (£620m)

6= Viscount Cowdray and the Pearson family £500m (£1,015m)

6= Felix Dennis £500m (£500m)

8 Cristina Stenbeck £369m (£350m)

9 Mark Getty and family £330m (£330m)

10 Mike Danson £310m (£278m)

11 Lord Iliffe and family £266m (£240m)

12 Sir Martin Sorrell £174m (£148m)

13 Mike Luckwell £135m (£135m)

14 Philip and Patricia Brown £132m (£132m)

15 Lord and Charles Saatchi £130m (£125m)

16 Sir Ray Tindle £125m (£145m)

17 Neil Hutchinson £123m (£59m)

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

19 Alan Parker £95m (£95m)

20 Gregory Nasmyth and family £85m (£68m)