BUSINESS PUBLICATIONS

Final Passage – Effective Jan. 1, 2009
The ABC board gave final approval to eliminate Rule D 2.8 Subscriptions Sold with Other Publisher Goods/Services. The change disqualifies all subscriptions sold on a non-deductible basis with a publisher’s other goods or services. The rule change affects all copies served after Dec. 31, 2008.

Unanimous Consent – Effective for the December 2008 reporting period
The board voted to adopt a new multimedia Publisher’s Statement format for business publications. The new report allows publishers to report Web site activity, e-newsletter activity and pass-along receivership data within Paragraph 1 of ABC reports.

Unanimous Consent – Effective July 28, 2008
Rules D 10.2 Separate Editions and D 10.3 Digital Versions and Digital Editions were revised to allow paid subscriptions to controlled-access Web sites to be reported as qualified paid circulation.

CONSUMER MAGAZINES

For Information
The board clarified Rule F 2.6 Partnership Sales to qualify 501(c)3 charitable organizations as an eligible partner for a deductible partnership sale.

Unanimous Consent – Effective July 28, 2008
The board modified Rule F 13.5 Analyzed Non-Paid Bulk Defined to further state that these copies must be the current issue available in the market.

For Information
To provide greater marketing flexibility to consumer magazines, the board agreed to allow publishers the opportunity to test new circulation marketing programs that are not currently available due to a lack of ABC qualification standards, provided the following guidelines are met:

• The publisher provides ABC advance notification of the program prior to its launch.
• The program does not violate any current ABC rules.
• The test phase does not exceed 12 months.
• The publisher provides ABC with all requested audit documentation.
• Circulation generated during the test is reported as verified or analyzed non-paid on ABC reports.
• If the circulation can be audited and the results are favorable, any new business generated under the program will qualify under the appropriate circulation category (i.e. paid, verified or analyzed non-paid).

The ABC board will review these programs and any audit results at each of its meetings.

CANADIAN NEWSPAPERS

For Information
The board sanctioned the Toronto Sun for significant audit adjustments exceeding five percent related to its September 2007 audit. The adjustments were as follows: Monday through Friday issues – 11.2 percent; Saturday issues –11.7 percent; Sunday issues – 15.1 percent.

Although the Sun resigned its ABC membership in April, the board voted to apply sanctions because the audit was conducted while the newspaper was still an ABC member and because the Sun was aware of the audit adjustments before it resigned from ABC. Since the Toronto Sun is no longer an ABC member, these sanctions must be fulfilled if it ever seeks to reinstate its ABC membership (per Bylaw 9.4 Reinstatement of Membership):

• ABC will issue a public notification to its members regarding the Toronto Sun’s sanction and conditions of reinstatement.
• Circulation data will be excluded from the FAS-FAX report for one year following its reinstatement.
• The Toronto Sun would be required to undergo six-month audits for the two years following its reinstatement.
• The first audit released following the Sun’s readmittance and the imposition of sanctions would notate that the newspaper is under sanction.
• The Toronto Sun would be required to submit a plan of corrective action to the board of directors before its application for membership could be approved.

Unanimous Consent – Effective July 28, 2008
The board modified rule C 21.2 Prices to allow newspapers to establish separate basic prices for single-copy and home-delivered replica electronic editions by reporting zone.

Unanimous Consent – Effective July 28, 2008
A significant number of the rule changes occurring in the U.S. have not yet been adopted for the Canadian market. While ABC’s Canadian members continue to review these changes for consideration in their market, a new section of ABC’s bylaws and rules—Article 20—was created to house the rules governing Canadian newspapers and Article 10 was dissolved. The rules in Article 20 apply only to the Canadian market and the only changes were to eliminate any rules, rule language or references specific to the U.S.

The board also took action regarding several changes to the Canadian newspaper rules, based on the recommendations of the Canadian committees:

U.S. NEWSPAPERS

For Information – Effective with the September 2008 Reporting Period
At the request of the NAA’s Newspaper Audience Leadership Council, the board agreed to modify the requirements for tier one newspapers that participate in Audience-FAX. Beginning with the September 2008 reporting period, tier one newspapers will be required to report six-month averages for its unique visitors using a panel-based source such as Nielsen Online or comScore, where available.

Tier one newspaper publishers can optionally include server-based numbers generated by Web analytics software such as Omniture.

For Information – Effective July 28, 2008
The board approved a new pass/fail reporting approach for the Insert Verification Service (IVS). Reports will now notate a pass rating if the newspaper achieves a 96 percent proficiency rate. This new pass/fail system replaces the total insert proficiency rate previously disclosed on IVS reports.

First Passage
The board gave initial approval to modify rule C 1.2 Prices to allow newspapers to establish separate basic prices for single-copy and home-delivered replica electronic editions by reporting zone.

For Information – Testing Available for the September 2008 Reporting Period
Recognizing that a newspaper’s reach encompasses more than just the traditional print product, the ABC board agreed to test a new optional consolidated report that would allow newspapers to display a variety of print, online and audience data. For example, a newspaper may include its daily publication, a free distribution product that features real estate, or job classifieds, a free newspaper targeted at commuters, and its Web site audience. All of the products included on the report must be owned and operated by an ABC member. Additionally, ABC must audit all of the data on the report, which is available as a test for the September 2008 reporting period.

OTHER DEVELOPMENTS

For Information
In an effort to streamline ABC’s auditing and billing structure and allow publishers to better plan and budget for upcoming audits, the board voted to restructure ABC’s current billing model and adopt a new flat-rate billing model for field audit services that will effectively freeze audit costs at their 2008 level.

The previous pricing model billed publishers on an hour-by-hour basis for audit costs. Under the new structure, most publisher members will now be billed a flat rate for their audits. For these members, the 2009 flat-rate audit costs will be based on their most recently released audit. More detailed information will be provided in the upcoming weeks as the program is rolled out to members.

In addition to capping audit costs, ABC will also unveil a series of new online tools that will allow members to further control their audit costs by obtaining a credit for completing and submitting advance audit documentation. For example, newspapers will have the opportunity to receive a credit for submitting their Paragraph 3 data to ABC in the requested format using the online tool.

The new pricing structure is effective with September 2008-ending audits.

For Information
The board elected the following new directors:

• Irene Grieco, manager, media investment and strategic partnerships, Unilever U.S.
• Suzanne Silber, group director of strategy, OMD
• Bill Stabile, senior director, brand and marketing communications, Siemens Corp.
• Lindsay Valk, senior vice president, analysis and planning, consumer marketing, Hearst Magazines
• Brenda White, senior vice president, Starcom Worldwide

In addition, Dennis Skulsky, president and CEO of publishing at Canwest, was elected treasurer.

For Information
The board also approved the creation of a new advisory committee focused on new media. The new Digital Advisory Committee will provide guidance to ABC about emerging forms of media that may benefit from independent third-party verification. In addition, the committee will provide input on ABC report formats and analysis tools that incorporate new media measurements.