ANA: More than half of marketers plan to cut budgets The tough times for the media economy are still far from over, suggests a study released yesterday by the Association of National Advertisers. Fifty-three percent of marketers surveyed by the ANA expect that their advertising budgets will be reduced in the next six months because of the economy, while 87 percent are already looking for savings and reductions with their current marketing and advertising plans. The survey included 100 marketers in a number of different industries, including pharmaceutical, financial, retail and packaged goods. Fifty-three percent said their marketing budgets would be reduced 1 to 10 percent, while 27 percent believed they would shrink 11 to 20 percent. Ten percent predicted cuts of 30 percent or more. Two-thirds planned to reduce advertising campaign media and production budgets, while 61 percent said they would eliminate or delay new projects.   At least among late-night hosts, Clinton won the race Sen. Hillary Clinton may be out of the race for president, but she’s still ahead of both Sen. Barack Obama and Sen. John McCain on one measure: most joked-about public figures in 2008. Through July 31, Clinton was the butt of a combined 562 jokes on NBC’s “Tonight Show” with Jay Leno and “Late Night” with Conan O’Brien, CBS’s “The Late Show” with David Letterman” and Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show” with Jon Stewart and “The Colbert Report,” according to an analysis by the Center for Media and Public Affairs. Not surprisingly, President George W. Bush led all public figures with 605 jokes, followed by Clinton, McCain (549 jokes), Obama (382 jokes) and Elliot Spitzer (240 jokes). Comparing just the two presumptive nominees, the three broadcast shows joked about McCain some 322 times, compared to just 169 for Obama. But on the two Comedy Central shows, Obama was the butt of 207 jokes, tops among all public figures and edging out the 201 jokes made about McCain.   Phelps-ian feat: NBC broadcasting 2009 swim finals Michael Phelps fever apparently has not subsided for NBC. The network said yesterday that it has entered a first-of-its-kind deal with the national and international swimming bodies to broadcast the 2009 world and U.S. swimming championships, as well as the 2010 and 2011 national championships. Obviously the network hopes to piggyback on the excitement over Phelps’ record-breaking eight-gold-medal performance at this year’s Games – the swimmer is appearing on the cover of Sports Illustrated this week and is expected to appear in London Sunday to help inaugurate the 2012 Games. Obviously NBC is counting on Phelps to remain a popular and dominant figure on the international swim scene, but the network also has another motivation. The weekday feeds will give NBC Universal some material for its newly launched Universal Sports network, an Olympic-focused channel that is available in 13 million households.   The word: Oprah wants off the cover of O magazine Between overseeing a media empire, campaigning for Barack Obama, and launching a new cable network, Oprah Winfrey has a pretty busy schedule. Is she about to bail on one of her most visible commitments? There’s word that Winfrey wants to stop appearing on the cover of O magazine, her self-titled publication where she’s graced the front of every issue since its launch eight years ago. The New York Post’s Page Six alleges that Winfrey has given her people six months to decide how to replace her, during which time she’ll continue to sit for the photo shoots. It’s probably not a bad time to shake things up. O saw newsstand sales fall 17 percent during the most recent Audit Bureau of Circulations reporting period, and ad pages are off 6.7 percent year to date, according to the Publishers Information Bureau, in a near where nearly every magazine has felt the hurt. Still, Winfrey’s people insist the rumor is not true. A spokesperson tells page six that she’s sitting for the next three cover shoots early next month.   Radio revenue reeling again during second quarter The Radio Advertising Bureau tried to put a happy face on its first-half numbers release yesterday, hailing the sharp growth off-air revenue like online and experiential activity. But that couldn’t mask the overall bad news for the industry. First-half revenue slipped 5 percent this year, to $9.86 billion. Second quarter was off 6 percent, to $5.36 billion, and local and national spot revenue both saw big declines. Local was off 6 percent year to date and 7 percent for second quarter, while national fell 11 percent in both. Off-air, previously referred to as non-spot, was the only category to see growth during Q2, up 10 percent to a still-modest $501 million. Year to date, network radio is up 3 percent, though it was flat during second quarter. The last time radio showed a year-to-year increase was April 2007, when revenue climbed 2 percent.