Rules & ResourcesConsumer Magazine Support Center
Hurricane Katrina’s Affect on Circulation Distribution
The U.S. Postal Service announced that it is not accepting periodicals addressed for delivery to several ZIP codes affected by Hurricane Katrina. ABC responds to questions regarding the affect on member publications. Check this document periodically for updates as news occurs.
Q: What are the ABC restrictions regarding the attempted delivery of copies into the hurricane affected areas?
A: ABC has been notified that the U.S. Postal Service has instituted service restrictions in the states affected by the hurricane, as of Aug. 31, 2005. You can read about these restrictions and the affected ZIP codes at the USPS website.
ABC understands that publishers may temporarily suspend service to subscribers residing in areas where delivery is not possible. ABC does not take exception to this suspension of service or the resulting extension of subscriber accounts once service is reinstated.
Any periodical distribution to the affected ZIP codes during the USPS suspension of service (which began on Aug. 31, 2005) will not be considered by ABC as eligible for inclusion in paid or non-paid circulation statistics unless special arrangements are made directly with ABC. This is because distribution to or receipt by the consumer is likely to not be verifiable.
Q: How will this suspension of service impact the qualification of controlled circulation (qualified non-paid/analyzed non-paid) for consecutive issues?
A: For qualification, specific sources of controlled circulation must be served for a minimum number of consecutive issues. For monthly publications, the minimum is six issues. For titles published more frequently than monthly, three months of service is required. ABC will not consider this hurricane-affected break in service to impact the consecutive issues required for these controlled sources.
Q: For subscriber accounts that have been suspended, can a publication choose to save suspended copies for later delivery? If so, what is the qualification standard?
A: Due to these extenuating circumstances, ABC will allow publishers to deliver all suspended copies and report them as “paid” circulation, provided delivery is made by Dec. 31, 2005.
Only suspended copies that are delivered to subscribers by Dec. 31, 2005, will be eligible for inclusion in paid/non-paid circulation claims on the Publisher’s Statement with an explanatory being made providing full description of the quantity of copies served and circumstances of this delivery.
Q: In the December 2005 Publisher’s Statement, will ABC offer publishers the opportunity to provide an explanation of the Hurricane Katrina impact?
A: Publishers will be given the opportunity to provide disclosure in the Publisher’s Statement explanatory paragraph regarding the impact of Hurricane Katrina on the publication.
As an example, a standard disclosure could be:
“Due to the USPS restrictions of delivery in response to Hurricane Katrina and its impact to the Gulf Coast Region during the week of Aug. 28, 2005, subscribers in the affected areas had magazine service suspended. Expire dates of the affected subscribers were appropriately extended.”
Another optional explanation:
“Effective with (insert date), a total of (insert quantity) subscribers had their subscription service suspended. For subscribers impacted, this suspension of service affected the circulation counts for the (insert issue range) issues and, therefore, impacted the average paid circulation for the six-month period ending Dec. 31, 2005, reporting period.”
Q: Whom may a publisher contact with specific questions not addressed above?
A: ABC’s Publisher Relations staff is available to assist publishers with this and other issues. Contact:
| 224-366-6585 | |
| 224-366-6371 |
Updated: September 1, 2005
