Single-Copy Price Reporting (Effective July 2004)

At their July 2004 meeting, the ABC board of directors made a modification to Rule F 1.2 Prices, so that when situations where a publisher changes their single-copy price during the Publisher’s Statement period, the publisher will report the averages for all single-copy issues’ cover price published during the reporting period.

Publisher’s Statements have consistently reported single-copy price points, not averages. Previously, when a publisher had a single-copy cover price change during the reporting period, the report included a “from/to” statement and indicated the changes as, “$2.99 to April 30; thereafter $3.99” in Par. 2 of Bureau statements.

Effective with the December 2004 Publisher’s Statement, when issues within the period carry different cover prices an average single-copy cover price in Publisher’s Statements and FAS-FAX.

For this reporting in the statement and on FAS-FAX, publisher's testing prices on a portion (minimal sales basis) is not considered a cover price change within the period.

For example, if a monthly magazine has a cover price of $3.00 for the July through October issues (4 issues) and $4.00 for the November and December issues (2 issues), the price reported in Par. 2 would be $3.33, an average for all six issues.

Updated March 21, 2005