ABC Board Addresses Consumer Magazine Reporting Requirements; Non-Deductible Partnership Sales; and Newspaper Day-of-Week Reporting; Rules on Other Key Issues
SCHAUMBURG, Ill. (July 19, 2004) - At its July 7-9 meeting, the Board of Directors of the Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC) took action to amend consumer magazine reporting requirements for Paragraph 4 B in Publisher’s Statements; modifying non-deductible partnership sales; and approving reporting requirements for Average Paid Circulation By Day-of-Week for newspapers. What follows is a summary of actions taken at the meeting. Details of this Media Alert will be published in ABC’s August 2004 NewsBulletin and featured on ABC’s Web site at www.accessabc.com.
BUSINESS/ FARM PUBLICATIONS
Unanimous Consent
Effective immediately, the Board voted to modify Rules E.2.1 Bulk Sales, E 2.2 Paid Bulk Sales Defined, E 2.3 Group (Mail Subscription Special) to include non-bulk distribution to be reported as qualified and identified as “Multi-Copy Individually Addressed” or “Multi-Copy Same Addressee” on ABC reports.
Effective immediately, the Board voted to adopt Rule E 12.5 Non-Paid Multi-Copy Same Addressee Circulation to qualify non-paid copies sent in bulk to specific addressee for redistribution.
Effective immediately, the Board voted to modify Rule E 8.5, Subscription/Single Copy Sales in Combination language so that all media divisions’ combination sale rules are consistent.
Effective December 2004, the Board voted to modify Rule E 1.2, Prices and Reporting Format for Paragraph 5 language and report formats to include premium values in the reporting of Paragraph 5, subscription price data.
Effective immediately, the Board voted to adopt Rule E 2.9 Sponsored Educational Multi-Copy Sales to allow Farm publications to solicit funds from corporations or other businesses to be used to sponsor the purchase of subscriptions to be distributed to college/university students in their field served.
Effective immediately, the Board voted to modify Bylaw 2.11 Paid Circulation Defined, D 3.1 Initial Audit, D 3.2 Transfer Audit, D 4.1, Publisher’s Statements, D 5.1 Geographic Analysis, D 5.2 Business Analysis, E 3.1 Initial Audit, E 4.1 Publisher’s Statements, to allow Canadian business and farm publications the option to report Publisher’s Statement and Audit Report cycles ended on any calendar quarter; March, June, September or December.
CONSUMER MAGAZINES
Unanimous Consent
Effective December 2004, the Board voted to update Rule F 1.2 Prices to address situations where a magazine’s single copy cover price varies in the statement period so that the average of all cover prices in the period, instead of the “Publisher’s Suggested Price,” will be reported on Publisher’s Statements, in Paragraph 2 and in the ABC consumer magazine FAS-FAX report.
Effective immediately, the Board voted to eliminate the requirement in Rule F 2.7 Club/Membership Subscriptions that publications must provide unique editorial/benefits to non-deductible club/membership members.
Effective immediately, the Board voted to modify Rule F 8.4 Subscription/Single Copy Sales in Combination to allow the opportunity to add an additional publication to the existing term of a consumer’s service in a continuous service renewal program where the consumer positively affirms the acceptance of the added publication.
Effective immediately, the Board voted to eliminate the requirement to report price and range of sales data in the explanatory paragraph for sponsored sales.
First Passage
Effective with the June 30, 2005 Publisher Statement, the Board voted to eliminate thresholds for those classes of circulation reported in Paragraph 4B (sponsored, partnership, club, membership and loyalty) and to update Rules F 2.1 Sponsored Sales, F 2.6 Partnership Sales and F 2.7 Club/Membership Subscriptions. These actions mean that disclosure of average paid circulation for these circulation classes will be required from “copy one” while the requirements for disclosure of single purchaser information has been eliminated.
Effective with the June 30, 2005 Publisher Statement, the Board voted to modify Rule F 2.6 Partnership Sales to allow for non-deductible partnership sales reported in Paragraph 4B from copy one.
NEWSPAPERS
Unanimous Consent
Effective immediately, the Board voted to modify rules regarding ABC Board directorship representation removing time zone classification, and replacing it with one new directorship classification for newspapers having greater than 250,000 net paid circulation and two at-large newspaper directorships. The ABC Board will continue to have six Directors representing U.S. daily newspapers. Four directorships will be based upon circulation size (0 – 25,000, 25,001 – 100,000, 100,001-250,000 and greater than 250,000); two will be elected at-large.
OTHER DEVELOPMENTS
In other July 2004 meeting developments, the Board continued its discussion regarding Reporting of Average Paid Circulation by Day-of-Week for newspapers, in which the Board endorsed the concept of reporting a mandatory five-day average with an optional six-day average, to become effective April 2005 for March-ending audits and October 2005 for September-ending audits. In conjunction with this development, rules A 1.2 Permissions and Prohibitions, C 2.1 Circulation Averages, C 2.5 Circulation Above or Below Average for Other Days will be revisited at the November 2004 Board meeting.
In response to recent events in the print media industry, the Board implemented a series of actions designed to reinforce confidence in the integrity of ABC-audited circulation information. For complete news releases on this topic, visit http://www.accessabc.com/press/press071204b.htm.
The Board also approved an average of 4% increase in audit and report services, effective January 1, 2005. This is the first price increase in two years. The last increase was effectiveJanuary 1, 2003. Dues will not increase.
In July, the 400th Reader Profile report was released. ABC’s Reader Profile readership verification service has grown significantly since its launch in 1999, with 102 of the top 150 newspapers (by largest reported circulation), and 67 of the top 75 Designated Market Areas (DMAs) participating in it as of press time. More information about Reader Profile can be found at http://www.accessabc.com/services/research.htm.
ABC will be holding its 90th Conference and Annual Meeting in Toronto, Ontario at the Fairmont Royal York, November 10-12. This year’s theme is “Making the Most of Your Competitive Advantage” and will feature recognized industry leaders in North America, discussions on current topics, training seminars and networking opportunities. Members can register online at www.accessabc.com or contact Gail at (847) 879-8241.
In addition to its conference, ABC is often a sponsor at various media industry events. ABC is a sponsor of the inaugural Advertising Week in New York City. The event is being launched by the American Association of Advertising Agencies (AAAA) and includes a full week of activities to begin September 20-24th. ABC will receive recognition at all Advertising Week industry related events such as industry leadership events (seminars and roundtables, ANA Sponsorship & Event Marketing Conference and the 4A’s Creative Conference) as well as public events and activities (Ad Council and the Partnership for a Drug Free America and an exhibit on the “I Love New York” campaign).
ABC will also be a major sponsor for the American Magazine Conference MPA's annual members-only event co-sponsored with ASME, this October. The MPA estimates that “more than 650 of the highest-level publishing executives and editors” regularly attend this conference.
With nearly 4,300 members, ABC is in its 90th year as the first and largest circulation-auditing organization in the world, maintaining the world’s foremost electronic database of audited-circulation information and a growing array of verified readership, subscriber demographics and online activity data. ABC offers reports and services in a variety of flexible formats, including print, spreadsheet, CD-ROM and online at http://www.accessabc.com.
|
Corporate Communications Contacts:
|
Senior Vice President, Communications and Strategic Planning
t: 847-879-8442 |
Manager, Communications
t: 847-879-8232 |
Manager, Communications
t: 847-879-8432
|
