• Ad Age, Monday, May 7, 2007 11:32 AM

Kraft, Wal-Mart and Coca-Cola are among a handful of companies ready to halt spending in magazines without issue-by-issue circulation guarantees, writes Nat Ives. While buyers have long chafed at guarantees of only average paid circulation, MediaVest USA has received support from some top clients to make single issue guarantees a reality.

"Let me be clear that I am a print champion," says Robin Steinberg, senior vice president-director of print investment and activation at MediaVest. "However, we believe that all publishers should make this guarantee, and we will walk away from business for those who don't." The agency bought some $900 million worth of ads in consumer magazines last year.

This approach comes from a growing demand for precise data, a drive fueled by the Internet model. "As somebody who's ultimately paying the bills, what I'm looking for is accountability and transparency," says Donna Campanella, executive director for global media at Avon, a MediaVest client. "We want to make sure that the impressions we were hoping to get for a particular issue have been delivered."

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