A new Borrell Associates report (Executive Summary available online) reveals that department stores have shifted $2 billion in advertising from newspapers to electronic media over the last four years, including online. In 1998, a similar Borrell study accurately predicted the fall of recruitment advertising for newspapers, and he says the same thing is happening — and accelerating — with department store advertising.

Not all is gloomy for newspapers. Newspapers are well-positioned with their strong local Web sites to pick up some of the loss. Department stores intend to increase their online ad spending remarkably — by more than 80 percent between now and 2009. And the target that department stores are trying to find — younger shoppers — can be found on newspapers’ Web sites at far higher than average frequency — and with much greater frequency than their own newspaper readership.