C 2.1 Circulation Averages

All ABC Publisher's Statements and Audit Reports shall include a calculation of average circulation for each day of the week the newspaper is published plus a five-day (Monday to Friday) combined daily average. Additional averages (e.g. six-day Monday to Saturday, "Power Days," etc.) may be included at the publisher's option. These averages will be presented in the following manner, and as applicable:

• Paid for by Individual Recipients (home delivery and single copy)
• Paid Business/Traveler circulation (group subscriptions plus guest refund-based and purchased by hotel copies)
• Verified Circulation

In those instances where a newspaper is required to report separate data for either digital or branded editions (see Rules C 2.4 Separate Editions and C 5.10 Subscriptions Involving Digital Editions), an executive summary of the circulation will be reported as applicable:

• Average for member newspaper
  • Print
  • Digital - Replica
  • Digital - Nonreplica
• Average for branded editions

Newspapers may optionally report total circulation by edition (print, digital replica, digital nonreplica, etc. to include all branded edition circulation) either in total by edition only or by edition distribution categories.

(Special Note: Effective with October 1, 2011, Publisher's Statements and Audit Reports, newspapers that report digital edition circulation sourced to bundled sales will be required to report a "net subscriber" number in total and by day of the week.)

As applicable, averages will be presented in a subsidiary paragraph(s) for each category—print, digital replica, digital nonreplica, and branded editions—in the following manner:

• Paid for by Individual Recipients (home delivery and single copy)
• Paid Business/Traveler circulation (guest refund-based and purchased by hotel)
• Verified Circulation

Publishers will also have the option to report circulation averages by geography (city zone, retail trading zone, newspaper designated market, etc.).

Publishers wishing to establish up to three sets of geographic basic annual prices for each frequency offered are required to report circulation averages by geography.

Newspapers with an average weekday paid circulation of 50,000 or less may opt not to report by day-of-week unless any one day (exclusive of Sunday) is at least 15 percent higher or lower than the other days, in which case day-of-week reporting is required. Newspapers choosing not to report by day-of-week may report a five-day (Monday to Friday) or six-day (Monday to Saturday) combined daily average.

Newspapers participating in the Community Newspaper Audit service may report a five-day (Monday to Friday) or six-day (Monday to Saturday) combined daily average. Sunday, where applicable, will be reported as a separate average.

Newspapers reporting on the Community Newspaper format may omit the inclusion of an executive summary and instead include replica and nonreplica digital edition circulation as a separate line item within Paragraph 1A of ABC reports labeled as digital editions. If nonreplica digital editions are included in this line item, the explanatory paragraph must report averages by replica and nonreplica edition.

In addition, Community Newspaper Audit service participants may report a separate average for a single or multiple "Power Day."

C 2.2 Morning, Evening, All-Day, and Sunday Designations

(a) Newspapers of daily frequency shall be designated in Bureau reports as either Morning, Evening, or All-Day. For U.S.-based newspapers, Sunday newspapers shall also be so designated in Bureau reports. The selection of the designation to be used shall be solely the prerogative of the publisher.

(b) The number, designation and dating of editions for newspapers of daily frequency shall be solely the prerogative of the publisher. These designations and dating shall be consistent for each day that an edition is published.

(c) Newspapers of national distribution may be designated as a "National Newspaper" provided it has distribution in at least 30 states, and with at least 20 percent of its distribution outside of its Newspaper Designated Market, or home state, whichever is applicable. It shall include an analysis of distribution by state in ABC Publisher's Statements and Audit Reports.

C 2.3 National Advertising Sold in Morning and Evening Editions as a Unit

When national advertising is sold exclusively as a unit in editions designated by the publisher as morning and evening editions of a daily paper, whether these editions are published under one or different names, Publisher's Statements shall be filed covering both editions. These statements may be issued separately or combined. If combined the total circulation of the two editions shall be reported in the first column, the circulation of the morning edition in the second column and the circulation of the evening edition in the third column.

C 2.4 Separate Editions

(a) The circulation of a separate edition of a member newspaper may be included in the total average paid and/or verified circulation of the member in Publisher's Statements and Audit Reports, subject to the following conditions:

C 2.5 Circulation Above or Below Average for Other Days

Not applicable to Community Newspaper Audit service participants.

(a) When, over a period of three months, the average weekday circulation of a daily paper with less than 50,000 paid circulation is, on a certain day of the week less than 15 percent but more than 5 percent in excess of or below the average for the other days of the week, the circulation for such day on which the excess or deficiency occurs may, at the option of the publisher, be shown separately and the average for the other five days shown as the "daily average." When multiple days meet the above criteria, they may be reported as one average if the circulation for each is within 5 percent of each other.

To exercise this option, the publisher must notify the managing director at least 15 days prior to the beginning of the six months' period for which the separation is desired to be shown. Upon receipt of such notice and its approval, the managing director shall notify all other daily newspaper members in the city of publication that such option has been requested and approved.

Once publishers have exercised the option, they may continue for successive periods while qualified.

(b) Total average paid circulation by month may, at the option of the publisher, be reported in Publisher's Statements and Audit Reports. Percentages of the differences between the monthly averages and the average paid circulation for the period covered by the report are to be shown.

C 2.6 Weekend Issues

When a publisher effects a change in front page logotype or date line or form, and thereby identifies an issue of a newspaper in a manner different from the regular logotype, date line or form, such as for one day each week or for a ``Weekend issue," the circulation for those days may be shown separately in circulation averages with appropriate explanation.

C 2.7 Days Omitted from Averages

(a) Newspapers may omit certain days from the calculation of their average net paid circulation when circulation on those days differs from the previous corresponding day by at least five percent.

Example: A newspaper wants to eliminate Thursday, August 11. The net paid circulation for that day was 100,000. The net paid circulation for the previous corresponding day (Thursday, Aug. 4) was 107,000. Because the difference between the two-day’s circulation exceeds five percent (7,000/107,000 = 6.54%), Aug. 11 is eligible for omission from ABC’s circulation averages.

A newspaper reporting 'branded' edition circulation may elect to omit certain days of only the member newspaper or any branded edition separately using the above criteria (circulation of a branded edition compared to the corresponding day of the same branded edition, etc.)

(b) Requirements

(1) A maximum of 10 omitted days is allowed within a 12-month audit period. The omission of any day(s) for a branded edition will each be considered as one of the maximum of 10 days allowed.

(2) When a publisher member changes distribution, such as distributing a Morning issue to Evening subscribers or copies of an Evening issue to Morning subscribers, the circulation for those days may be included in paid circulation, provided the publisher maintains records to substantiate that those distributed copies qualify as paid circulation.

The total paid circulation for each such day and the average total paid circulation, exclusive of those days during the period covered by the reports, will be shown in the Explanatory Paragraph.

(c) Bureau Reports
When there are days that are omitted from the average reported, the circulation for omission will be reported separately for each day in the Explanatory Paragraph. The number of omitted days will also be reported on the front page.

C 2.8 Extras

(a) Any edition issued in addition to the regular editions and which is published more than an hour before or an hour after the normal press schedule shall be considered an "extra." The last regular press schedule of the day in a previous week corresponding to the day on which the extra is run shall be considered the normal press schedule.

(b) To qualify as paid circulation an extra of a daily newspaper must be sold at qualifying prices and comply with C2.4 Separate Editions.

(c) The sales of extra editions shall be included in the circulation of the day for which they are dated. Extra editions of weekday newspapers issued under Sunday date line shall be included in the circulation for the following Monday.

(d) A complete explanation shall then be included stating the occasion for the extra editions, the number of sales made for each extra edition, the average for the period affected, whether all advertising was carried, and if not, the extent to which it was.

C 2.9 Analysis of Individually Paid Home-Delivery Circulation by Price Category

Not applicable to Community Newspaper Audit service participants.

(a) Newspapers will be required to report subscription circulation sold at greater than or equal to 25% of basic price and subscription circulation sold at less than 25% of basic price if more than 5% of their subscription circulation is sold at prices below 25% of basic price. This information will be reported in an on-line, password protected database.

C 2.10 One-Day Figures for Supplement Statements

When a newspaper provides an average circulation for all issues published on a specific day of the week for use in a Newspaper Supplement Statement, which does not appear in the newspaper's individual reports, this will be verified by audit and appropriately identified and explained in the Newspaper Supplement Statement.

C 2.11 Intermittent Subscriptions

C 2.12 Audit Report Maps

(a) Audit Reports of daily newspaper members with circulation of 50,000 or more shall include a map showing the current ABC zone boundaries and designated distribution area.

(b) All other newspaper members may, at the option of the publisher, include a map showing the current ABC zone boundaries or designated distribution area.

(c) The Audit Reports of newspaper members reporting circulation on the basis of a newspaper designated market in lieu of zones or in addition to zones, shall include a map showing the approved newspaper designated market boundaries of the newspaper.

The Audit Report of U.S. newspaper members reporting an analysis by ZIP Code in Paragraph 3 may show ZIP Code boundaries for the City Zone, Retail Trading Zone, Newspaper Designated Market or designated distribution area.

(d) Maps are to be prepared by the Bureau in accordance with the procedures approved by the Board of Directors.

C 2.13 Weekly Newspaper Group Audit Plan

In order to qualify for the group audit plan, the weekly newspapers involved must meet the following criteria:

(a) Each newspaper in the group shall qualify for ABC membership in accord with the bylaws defining regular or provisional membership.

(b) Advertising shall be sold in combination for all newspapers.

(c) The initial audit of a weekly, semiweekly or triweekly newspaper shall cover a period of at least three months ending with any calendar quarter. Audits thereafter shall be scheduled at least once each two years for urban weekly newspapers and at least once every four years for non-urban weeklies. The managing director shall determine after consultation with the publishers in the group the period to be covered by each regular audit.

(d) Group Publisher's Statements showing circulation data for individual newspapers as well as total circulation for all newspapers in the group shall be issued for the semi-annual periods October 1 to March 31 and April 1 to September 30.

C 2.14 Total Consumer Accounts

All ABC Publisher's Statements and Audit Reports shall include a calculation of Total Consumer Accounts.

• Total Consumer Accounts represents the number of unique customer accounts.
• All products billed together, whether incremental pricing exists or not, count as one Total Consumer Account.
• Total Consumer Accounts will be calculated using a snapshot of one representative daily day and Sunday during the reporting period.
• The ABC report will include an explanatory note in situations where specific platforms could not be unduplicated.
• Newspapers reporting on the Community Newspaper Audit format are not required to report Total Consumer Accounts.