Guide for Initial Audits

Who is ABC?

For more than 90 years, ABC has served as the trusted industry standard in audited circulation data. We are the world’s first and largest circulation-auditing organization and industry leader as the gold standard in media auditing. ABC verifies and reports print circulation, readership and Web site activity for print media: newspapers, consumer magazines, farm and business publications.

Objectives
We provide independent, third-party audits of print circulation, readership and Web site activity. That data is disseminated into reports and is made available in various print and electronic formats. We also maintain the world's foremost database of audited circulation and readership information.

Governance
ABC is a not-for-profit, tripartite organization composed of publisher, advertiser and advertising agency members. The control and management of ABC is vested in a board of directors consisting of 36 members: 19 advertising and advertising agency directors, and 17 publisher directors. The members of ABC elect these directors. The board meets three times per year (in March, July and November) and is responsible for adopting bylaws, rules, policies, procedures and reporting formats that govern the ABC membership.

Mission
ABC is dedicated to being the world's pre-eminent self-regulatory auditing organization, responsible to advertisers, advertising agencies, and the media they use, for the independent verification and dissemination of our members' circulation, readership, and audience information.

ABC will conduct audits that represent the industry standard for integrity, objectivity, and accuracy, and will use state-of-the-art techniques to produce and disseminate ABC-audited information.

ABC is committed to its tripartite member organization, to anticipating and exceeding the needs of our members, and to providing the audited data that enable them to plan, purchase, and sell media advertising with confidence.

ABC Staff
In addition to conducting audits, ABC staff is also responsible for educating and assisting our membership in understanding and applying the ABC bylaws, rules, policies, procedures and reporting formats adopted by our board of directors.

We have three offices:

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