More than a quarter - 26 percent - of 117 senior marketers recently surveyed by the Association of National Advertisers (ANA) said they plan to shift dollars away from magazines to other media; 21 percent said they plan to shift dollars away from newspapers. The number-one recipient of redirected budgets was the internet, according to 74 percent of the respondents. Confronted with such intent by a significant portion of marketers, the keynote speakers at the annual ANA Print Advertising Forum, held in New York, focused on urging improvements in meeting print advertisers' need for marketing accountability.

According to the ANA survey, only half of the respondents (51 percent) intend to keep their magazine advertising budgets at the same level as last year. Of those that do plan to maintain their spending levels, a significant portion, 35 percent, expect to use fewer titles. As for newspapers, a similar number, 50 percent, anticipate keeping their advertising budgets at the same level.

"To maximize their investment in print media, marketers desire an array of measurement enhancements," said a speaker. "These include issue-specific circulation data, cumulative information that clearly shows how a magazine's audience builds over time and reader involvement insights that increase understanding of consumer behavior patterns."

The ANA represents 355 companies with 8,000 brands that collectively spend over $100 billion in marketing communications and advertising.