Promotion Guide

Gift Subscriptions

A gift subscription is the purchase of a subscription by an individual for another individual as an expression of personal friendship.

Rule F 2.2 Gift Subscriptions stipulates that for qualification as paid circulation, the following is required:

• The purchaser must pay at least one cent for each subscription in the sale.
• In the contract portion of the offer, all subscriptions included must be positioned to the consumer as paid for as part of the total amount due. The contractual agreement is the portion of the offer where the consumer takes action to order the subscription—checking a box, completing requested data, selection of service term or verbal agreement in a telemarketing offer.
• Limitation of 50 subscriptions per individual purchaser.

Subscriptions purchased to promote a professional or business interest are not considered gift subscriptions. Depending on the elements of the program, the subscriptions may be eligible to qualify as verified, analyzed non-paid market coverage, analyzed non-paid bulk, or non-analyzed non-paid.

Single donor orders in quantities of more than 50, where the subscriptions are individually addressed, are eligible for classification as sponsored sales and therefore are governed by the rules and guidelines for sponsored sales.

Example of Acceptable Offer

____ YES! Sign me up for a one-year subscription to Prototype Magazine and send a one-year subscription to my friend listed below for a total of two subscriptions for $10.00.

Send my subscription:
Name ________________________
Address_______________________
City, State, ZIP _________________

Include a friend’s subscription:
Name ______________________
Address ____________________
City, State, ZIP _______________

A contractual agreement must state that all subscriptions received are paid for at the total amount charged. In this example, the contractual agreement states “two subscriptions for $10.00.”