Rules & Resources
Farm Publication Support Center

Reporting of Club/Membership Subscriptions and Partnership Sales (New, July 2003)

At their July 2003 meeting ABC’s board of directors granted immediate passage to create Rule E 2.7 Club/Membership Subscriptions and Rule E 2.8 Partnership Sales, for farm publications.

Club/Membership Subscriptions

Club/Membership subscriptions are copies served to individuals as a result of membership in a club or similar organizations wherein the organization does not qualify for reporting as an association on ABC reports.

A “club” is defined as a group of individuals who belong to an organization for a common purpose and where the “club” either meets regularly, provides an outlet for members to use, or has ongoing communication with the members on the common purpose.

For example Farm Today Magazine is offered as a membership benefit to members of the “Farmers Club of Schaumburg, IL.”

Club/Membership subscriptions will qualify as paid circulation under the following guidelines:

  • The club member is notified of the inclusion of the farm publication at the point of joining the club
  • The publication included in the club/membership program must be editorially homogenous with the defining characteristics of the club.
  • The publication must carry unique editorial and/or benefits to the club/membership members every quarter or within every issue for publications published less than quarterly.
  • Annual club/membership dues must be collected from the club/membership members
  • The amount allocated for the subscription is at least one cent, is identified as deductible or non-deductible from the membership on invoice for membership and is presented in clear and reasonable manner on all written benefit, new and renewal membership information.
  • If a publication makes an average price claim the amount identified as deductible shall be used in the calculation as the value of the subscription.
  • Non-deductible club/membership subscription will qualify for inclusion in paid circulation under the following conditions:
    1. Club/Membership members need to have the option to “opt-out” of the club/membership program, but may continue as subscribers at the same or greater price as allocated as part of the membership fee.
    2. The amount allocated for the subscription must not be less than one cent and the value of the tangible products or services (premiums), also the amount allocated for the subscription cannot exceed the amount charged as dues.
For reporting purposes, the average number of copies served as club/membership subscriptions, and identification as being deductible or non-deductible from dues will be reported in Par. 1 with a full description of the program in the explanatory paragraph.


Partnership Sales

Partnership Sales are subscriptions of the publication sold in conjunction with other goods or services, where the publication is deductible from the total purchase price. An example of such a program might be “Purchase a new Tractor Blade and included in a purchase of $300 or more, you will receive a one year subscription to Farm Today Magazine."

Note: Sales with services such as cable television services, transportation services and hotel/motel room services continue to be subject to ABC Policy Regarding Subscriptions Sold with Other Services

In order for the subscription to qualify as paid circulation the following criteria must be met:

  • The purchaser is notified of the farm publication subscription at the point of purchase.
  • The amount to be allocated to the subscription is identified in a clear and reasonable manner as being deductible from the purchase price.
  • The value of other benefits may be calculated as the total cost of purchasing the partnership element without the farm publication subscription, provided these benefits are identical to the benefits offered for the purchase which includes a farm publication subscription.
  • The total price paid must be at least one cent plus the cost of the purchase without the farm publication subscription and shall be the same as the amount identified as deductible for the subscription value.
  • For publications making average price claim, this amount identified as deductible shall be used in the calculation as the value of the publication.
  • In the case of single-copy sales, the purchase price of the farm publication (single-copy price) must be deductible at the point of purchase.

Publications, which sell partnership subscriptions and single-copy shall report the average number of copies served as “Partnership Subscriptions” and/or “Partnership Single-Copy" in Paragraph 1 with a full description of the sale in the explanatory paragraph.