BUSINESS/ FARM PUBLICATIONS

Unanimous Consent, Effective with June 2006 Publisher’s Statements
The ABC board of directors approved a new “Consolidated Media Report” that presents circulation, pass-along readership, Web site traffic, and other auditable media in one aggregated figure represented as “Total Audience Reach.” Completed reports will be made available alongside ABC Audit Reports and Publishers Statements to subscribers of ABC’s eStatements online database.

Unanimous Consent, Effective July 24, 2006
The board added a new Rule D 2.9 Partnership Sales to allow business publication members to sell subscriptions on a deductible basis in conjunction with a business partner’s goods and/or services.

The ABC board also modified Rule D 5.2 Business Analysis, Rule D 5.3 Age of Source, and Rule D 5.4 Mailing Address to allow publishers to update demographic and mailing address statistics until the Publisher’s Statement filing deadline and update age of source information through the end of the Publisher's Statement period.

CONSUMER MAGAZINE

Unanimous Consent, Effective July 24, 2006
The ABC board accepted a corrective action plan submitted by EBSCO Industries and lifted the censure status for its EBSCO Consumer Magazine Services (ECMS) division.

Unanimous Consent, Effective with January 2006 issues
The board also amended Rule F 15.1 Verified Circulation and Rule F 7.2 Back Copies to allow publications - issued monthly or less frequently - to serve one issue as a back copy.

Unanimous Consent, Effective January 1, 2007
ABC board of directors adopted additional steps to shorten audit-completion time by modifying Rule F 4.1 Publisher’s Statements to include suspending the listing on ABC’s FAS-FAX report when a member fails to submit completed audit forms and schedules by the filing deadline for the subsequent Publisher’s Statement period. The board also unanimously approved the modification of Rule F 2.1 Sponsored Sales to require payment for a sponsored sale within four months of start of service.

For information
The ABC board reaffirmed Rule F 2.8 Subscriptions Purchased for Military Personnel stipulating that subscriptions purchased for military personnel can only apply to situations in which the copies are being directed to individuals and not for public-place use.

ABC’s directors also reaffirmed that all past and current nondeductible partnership sales are subject to paid circulation criteria, net of all considerations. The board recommended that publishers review any circulation generated from nondeductible partnership programs when they file their June 2006 Publisher’s Statements and consider reporting non-qualifying circulation as verified circulation.

NEWSPAPER

Unanimous Consent, Effective Aug. 1, 2006
The ABC board modified Rule C 3.3 Third-Party Sales and Rule C 9.1 Supplemental Analysis affecting the grace allowance for third-party home delivery so that a total allowance of up to 15 percent for random/occasional delivery errors and false no goods will be permitted in evaluating the results of in-field testing of third-party home-delivered programs.

First Passage
The board agreed to modify Rule C 5.19 Purchase of Subscription List. When a publication purchases a subscription list of another publication that has ceased to exist (or about to cease publication), both publications must have been published in the same DMA or within a 100-mile radius. Otherwise, subscribers of the publication being purchased must “opt-in” to receive the acquiring publication.

ABC’s directors amended Rule C 5.17 Subscription Offer Based on Acceptance Unless Declined so that a publication can convert subscribers for any period of time without prior consent from the consumer, as long as they can easily cancel the upgrade and revert back to their original subscription. The board also stipulated the requirement that opt-out notifications should be clear and conspicuous.

First Passage, Effective with March 2007 audits
The ABC board adopted steps to shorten audit-completion time by modifying Rule C 7.12 List of Towns Receiving 25 or More Copies, mandating that data required for disclosure in paragraph 3 in Audit Reports, as listed in Rule C 7.12 (a), must be submitted at least 15 days prior to the auditor's scheduled arrival to begin the audit. Failure to submit the data will result in the automatic exclusion from the applicable FAS-FAX report.

For Information
The board reviewed ABC’s current qualification standards for third-party sale programs and agreed that the following items be required to support new programs:

• Attestations from the newspaper and third-party sales purchaser for all copies paid for through barter transactions
• A schedule detailing all debits and credits associated with purchase agreements for review at audit time
• 14-day advance notification to ABC of all third-party sales programs, including identification of the purchaser.

READER PROFILE

Unanimous Consent, Effective July 24, 2006
The board amended Reader Profile standards by requiring its minimum study geography to include at least 75 percent of the publication’s total circulation, requiring that each wave of data from any syndicated research supplier be audited and eliminating the six-month bonus shelf-life for renewing newspapers.

FOR ALL MEMBERS

Unanimous Consent, Effective July 24, 2006
The ABC board of directors amended the eligibility rules of ABC Interactive (ABCi), the organization’s unit that audits and reports Web site activity of newspapers and periodicals. The board agreed to allow ABC Interactive to service non-ABC member companies, provided that participants obtain an associate membership in ABC prior to the start of its initial Web site audit.

Unanimous Consent, Effective January 1, 2007
The board also approved increases in the ABC's rates effective January 1, 2007. Field auditing hourly rates will change from $75 to $79 and audit management rates will increase $10 per hour; Technical review rates will increase four percent, report services will incur a three percent increase and access/image fees will increase five percent.

For information
The ABC board of directors also reviewed “Premium Defined” rules for all divisions. Rule changes will be considered at the November 2006 meeting to allow publications to charge access fees for archives and back content of their publication without the access counting as a premium.

OTHER DEVELOPMENTS

ABC elected to the board Brett Dennis, director of media marketing for T-Mobile, as an advertising director.

ABC’s periodical FAS-FAX is rescheduled for release on Monday, Aug. 21, to be followed by the FAS-FAX Supplement scheduled for an Aug. 28 release.

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