Sponsored Educational Multi-Copy Sales (Effective July 2004)

Effective July 1, 2004, a new rule, Rule E 2.9 Sponsored Educational Multi-Copy Sales, was adopted.

This new rule allows farm publications to solicit funds from corporations or other businesses for use as sponsorship funds to purchase subscriptions distributed to college/university students enrolled in studies within the "Field Served" of the publication. Such distribution may qualify as paid circulation and reported as "Multi-Copy Sales" provided the following criteria are met:

1. Funding is solicited for the purchase of subscriptions to a specific program.
2. If the sponsoring business is also an advertiser with the publication, the sponsorship amount must be incremental to the advertising purchased by the sponsor.
3. Publishers must allocate at least one cent per subscription (or single-copy) from the sponsorship funding for each sale.
4. Recipients must be advised sponsorship funding is providing the subscription/single-copy sales.
5. No distribution is to be made unless the publication has received funding in advance.
6. The paragraph related to general explanations shall include a description of all programs included in paid circulation. Such explanation should include a description of the sponsor(s), quantity purchased, amount allocated by the publisher from the sponsorship funding for each subscription/single-copy sale, and the average copies included in paid circulation.

Updated 7/21/04