CONSUMER MAGAZINES

Final Passage – Effective Mar. 13, 2006
The board voted to modify Rule F 10.1 Separate Editions to define an eligible edition as an edition of the publication which is homogeneous to the primary publication in its editorial content and carries the main identity of the primary publication, so that editions not adhering to these updated criteria are considered separate publications and required to hold separate ABC membership.

Unanimous Consent- Effective Mar. 13, 2006, for the June 2006 filing period
The board unanimously agreed to reinstate rules to address subscription sales paid for by a third party purchaser to be delivered to military personnel, to be reflected in Rule F 2.8 Subscriptions Purchased for Military Personnel. Disclosure on ABC circulation statements will be presented as “Subscriptions to Military Personnel.”

Unanimous Consent- Effective, Mar. 13, 2006
The board approved a new optional service, Agent Compliance Evaluation (ACE), which will provide publishers with added assurance that an ABC-member subscription agent has the potential to execute ABC-compliant programs. ACE will not offer agents certification, but rather evaluate an agent’s order processing, financial and operating environments and assess its capacity to generally comply with ABC rules. Agents will still be held accountable for reviewing individual programs with ABC.

The board also approved the launch of an optional ABC Rapid Report service that will allow publishers to report a reasonable estimation of a publication’s issue-by-issue circulation data. The new service, free to subscribers and users of ABC’s online database, will launch with July-dated issues, following the completion of beta tests currently underway.

ABC’s board voted to revise the application of Rule F 2.6 Partnership Sales so that a limit of one magazine may be included in a non-deductible partnership bundled sale.

For the June 2006 and Dec. 2006 reporting periods, the board voted to allow publishers to report Paragraph 6A - Additional Analysis of Verified Public Place and 6B - Additional Analysis of Verified Individual Use Data on a single representative issue for the period covered by the circulation statement.

The board also adopted a new FAS-FAX report format that reflects the newly added verified category, to be effective with the June 2006 reporting period.

To reflect the new verified circulation reporting category, ABC’s board modified Rule F 5.1 Geographic Analysis, Rule F 5.2 Distribution by ABCD County Size, Rule F 5.3 Distribution by Countries, Rule F 5.4 Distribution by Zip Code, and Rule F 5.5 Distribution By Demographics.

The board also voted to modify, remove, and add to existing rules pertaining to analyzed non-paid circulation to reflect the board’s agreement that certain analyzed non-paid categories of direct request and lists/directory source where the consumer has been given an “opt-out” option, be included in verified circulation reporting.

ABC’s directors voted to:
• Modify Rule F 15.1 Analyzed Non-Paid Direct Request Circulation
• Remove Rule F 15.2 Analyzed Non-Paid Other Than Direct Request Circulation
• Modify Rule F 11.1 Advertising Rate Base or Circulation Guarantee
• Modify Rule F 13.1 Definition of Individual Recipient
• Modify Rule F 13.2 Method of Circulation
• Modify Rule F 13.3 Analyzed Non-Paid Circulation
• Modify Rule F 13.4 Age of Source
• Adopt new Rule F 13.4 Analyzed Non-Paid List Source
• Modify Rule F 13.6 Analyzed Non-Paid Market Coverage Circulation
• Adopt new Rule F 13.7 Analyzed Non-Paid Delivered with Host Product Defined
• Modify the numeration of Rule F 13.7 Supplemental Unit Analyses to that of Rule F 14.1 Supplemental Unit Analyses

For information
The ABC board endorsed the development of a streamlined audit program for “newsstand-only” publications. This new program would provide for an ABC audit of the publication, without requiring preliminary circulation estimates to be filed in a Publisher’s Statement. Further review of related business rules will take place at the July 2006 board meeting.

SUBSCRIBER PROFILE

Unanimous Consent- Effective Mar. 13, 2006
ABC’s board voted to update ABC’s Subscriber Profile reporting to reflect the new occupational codes redefined by the U.S. government and used by a key Subscriber Profile researcher, Mediamark Research Inc. (MRI).

NEWSPAPERS

Unanimous Consent - Effective Mar. 13, 2006
The ABC board approved the format for Insert Verification Service (IVS) reports. The board also agreed that the report feature net and gross error rates on the front page and average paid circulation from the most recent Publisher’s Statement. The new IVS report will carry a two-year shelf life. ABC will also build a cumulative database for advertiser members to analyze their preprint advertising investments across all participating newspapers.

The board also voted to continue to uphold the pre-July 2005 third-party sales standards regarding barter when evaluating new programs through April 1, 2006, and qualifying related copies served through Oct. 1, 2006. The board voted to add the following enhancements to the existing standards:

• A barter item cannot have a value that exceeds $25,000.
• Items exchanged in barter for newspapers purchased should be available without any additional purchase requirements and be redeemable within the newspaper’s market, defined as a 100-mile radius from the publisher’s central office (except for national newspapers).
• Two weeks pre-notification to ABC, including details of the targeted recipients and the distribution plan, is required for any third-party program funded by barter exchange.
• When tickets to an event are exchanged as barter, the tickets must have a face value and the location of the event must be within a 100-mile radius of the publisher’s central office. The spirit of this qualification standard intends that tickets to events that are unlimited in quantity, not a scarce good, may not be used as a barter exchange item for the purposes of qualifying the sale as paid circulation. The ABC managing director will use his/her discretion to determine specific outcomes, as may be required under ambiguous qualification circumstances that are not contemplated here.
• Any barter exchange item must be sold in the public domain over a sufficient period of time to establish the value used to qualify the third-party paid copies.
• Any bartered item that is generally available for free in the public domain cannot be exchanged to qualify third-party sales copies as paid circulation.

READER PROFILE

For information
The ABC board agreed to develop the following enhancements to ABC’s Reader Profile service:

1. Expand information reported
2. Extend participation to additional ABC-member newspapers
3. Enhance data timeliness
4. Standardize study geographies
5. Simplify the audit report

BUSINESS/FARM

Unanimous Consent – Effective Mar. 13, 2006
The ABC board voted to modify the qualification guidelines pertaining to digital editions to allow more opportunity to format the pagination, flow and advertising of online content, instead of being an exact replica of the printed edition. As an example, editorial content may be substituted with hotlinks to the publisher’s Web site, where additional content would be presented.

For information
The board endorsed the concept of creating an optional integrated media report that will integrate various audience channels, such as Web site activity and pass-along numbers, and arrive at a conclusive “total reach” figure. Further review of the report and format will take place at the July 2006 board meeting.

The board also endorsed the concept of creating partnership rules pertaining to business/farm publications. Further rule language will be reviewed at the upcoming July 2006 board meeting.

FOR ALL MEMBERS

Unanimous Consent- Effective Mar. 11, 2006
The ABC board modified its bylaws to expand the circumstances under which the board may impose individual sanctions (other than censure) on its members by adopting Article 7.7 Sanctions. These sanctions may include exclusion from FAS-FAX, four semi-annual audits, submission of a plan of corrective action, notice to members, and/or a cash fine.

OTHER DEVELOPMENTS

The board elected Charlie Rutman, CEO of MPG North America, to the board as an advertising agency director.

ABC announced that a new magazine agent/ fulfillment subcommittee to the Magazine Directors Advisory Committee is being created.

ABC will release a Reader Profile FAS-FAX report in tandem with the March 2006 Newspaper FAS-FAX Report. The new Reader Profile FAS-FAX report will list top-line information skimmed from ABC Reader Profile reports and include data representing newspaper-specific readers-per-copy, subscriber readers, single-copy readers, pass-along readers, sex, age, household income, and the average paid circulation in the covered study geography. The initial release will reflect U.S. daily newspapers that currently participate in ABC’s Reader Profile service and will be available in Excel and PDF formats. The releases of Newspaper and Reader Profile FAS-FAX reports are scheduled for May 8.

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