Rules & ResourcesBylaws & Rules
Chapter C: Article 1 - Paid Circulation
C 1.1 Paid Circulation Defined
Paid circulation is hereby defined to be subscriptions and single copy sales of newspapers which have been individually paid for by the purchasers, not for resale, at not less than one cent per copy or per subscription.
(a) Subscriptions may be served for no longer than three consecutive months, immediately following the expiration date and such arrears may be included in paid circulation.
(b) Subscriptions to any newspaper received as a result of an offer by a publisher that stipulates that part of the subscription term is free will qualify for inclusion in paid circulation only when a contractual agreement exists for the full term and frequency of the subscription and is in accord with the provisions of this rule. Without such contractual agreement, those copies that are free shall not qualify as paid circulation.
(c) Unless stated otherwise, the amount paid by the purchaser/subscriber required to qualify circulation as paid, is net of all other considerations.
For purposes of defining paid circulation, the phrase ‘net of all considerations’ means that the purchaser has paid a qualifying price for the single copy or subscription in addition to the value of any other product or service bundled with the subscription or single copy offer.
For example, an offer of a subscription that includes an inducement of ‘free’ movie tickets valued at $6.00 would require the consumer to pay $6.00 plus a qualifying amount for the subscription in order for the sale to qualify as paid circulation.
(See Rule C5.2 Premiums regarding the valuation process)
C 1.2 Prices
(a) Basic price is defined as the price at which the publication may be purchased by anyone at anytime. For ABC reporting purposes, publisher members must establish a single copy basic and an annual basic price for each frequency of delivery available to consumers. These basic prices must be regularly published within the publication (at least quarterly) and the publisher must be able to demonstrate current and ongoing sales at these prices.
(b) Annual basic prices must be established for home-delivery subscriptions for each offered frequency. Publishers will also have the option to establish a basic price for mail-delivered subscriptions. An example of a basic price declaration might be as follows:
| Home Delivery | |
| Daily & Sunday | $100 / year |
| Daily Only | $ 60 / year |
| Sunday Only | $ 50 / year |
(c) Publishers are only required to establish one set of basic prices as noted in (b) above; however, publishers may optionally establish different annual basic prices for up to three geographic areas (e.g. city zone, retail trading zone, all other; NDM, ONDM, etc.), provided the publisher also reports circulation averages for each geographic area (see C2.1 Circulation Averages).
(d) Newspapers offering electronic editions may establish a separate basic price structure for Single Copy Sales and Home Delivery for the electronic edition or default to the print product’s basic price.
(e) National newspapers may establish up to three geographic based pricing zones and establish basic prices by delivery type and frequency for each of these zones. Each pricing area may be established by the newspaper itself, provided the area is comprised of continuous geographic units such as postal code boundaries, census units, counties, towns, etc. In addition, each pricing area must abut one other pricing area.
Basic prices per area may change at the publisher's discretion; however, pricing areas may change only at the beginning of an audit period, and only after notification to the Bureau.
Publisher's Statements for those national newspapers opting to establish prices per this rule shall include a description of each of the geographic pricing units
