Electronic Editions—U.S. Newspapers

Educational Programs

Newspapers In Education (Classroom copies)

Newspaper publishers may wish to serve Newspapers In Education (NIE) classroom copies in electronic format.

The NIE electronic edition copies are required to adhere to all the guidelines established for NIE print copies, such as pricing, fundraising, and thank you ads. For more information on the requirements for NIE programs, access our Educational Programs Guide for Newspapers.

The only difference between the service of electronic editions and print editions for NIE is the delivery format—online versus print. In any NIE scenario, the following must occur:

• Teachers must place an order for the number of copies they wish to receive for the students in their classrooms and the dates they wish the copies to be delivered.
• Copies are delivered to the classrooms.
• If the copies are sponsored, the teacher must sign an affidavit attesting to the number of copies actually received for each date (or range of dates) and they were used in the classroom as part of the curriculum.

For electronic editions, the following would occur:

• Teacher must place an order for the number of “licenses” they wish to receive for the students and the dates they wish to access the electronic edition.
• Publication will issue usernames and passwords to the teacher to gain access to the electronic edition. (The same username and password set may be used for multiple licenses in the same classroom.)
• If the copies are sponsored, the teacher must sign an affidavit attesting to the number of licenses ordered, the dates they desired for access to the electronic edition, that the electronic editions were used in the classroom as part of the curriculum, and the number of students in the classroom.
(An example of NIE affidavit for electronic editions is below)

If a newspaper serves the classroom with both an electronic edition and a print edition of the newspaper, only one of the copies may be claimed as paid circulation on ABC documents.

For information on how NIE electronic editions should be disclosed on ABC documents, please refer to the Reporting section on electronic editions.

NIE Affidavit - For Electronic Editions (Example)

Registered College Student Copies

Newspaper publishers may choose to deliver electronic editions to fulfill service of copies claimed on ABC documents as Registered College Student Copies (RCS).

Circulation classified in this category traditionally represents print copies provided to registered college student in a campus setting. The print copies are distributed in mass quantities in places limited to access by registered students of that school such as dormitories and classroom buildings (gross draw). At the end of each day, the publication must then collect all copies not picked up (leftovers) and exclude those from paid circulation.

ABC only allows a publication to claim as paid circulation those copies that were actually "picked up" by students, which translates to the "net" amount of copies actually distributed. Records need to be maintained that indicate the number of print copies distributed for pick-up and the number of leftovers. The copies must be paid for at a qualifying price by either the school or an eligible sponsor (25 percent of basic prices).

In the environment of electronic editions, each registered college student would be provided with a username and password to access the electronic edition. The number of students who have a username and password would represent the gross draw. However, the issuance of a username and password doesn't mean the student actually "picked up" the newspaper that day. As with print editions, ABC only allows copies actually picked up to be claimed as paid circulation.

In the electronic world, the only way to know how many copies were actually “picked up” by students is based on how many students actually logged on and accessed the newspaper. Therefore, for audit, you would need to maintain documentation to support the following:

• Quantity of registered college students at that specific school.
• Names of all students (or other unique identifier such as student ID number) with access to the electronic edition.
• Recipients are all currently registered students at that school.
• Some method to identify each unique user.
• System generated reports that detail which students actually accessed the newspaper for each issue (minus any duplication from multiple log-ins by the same user)
• The copies were paid for at a qualifying price by either the school or eligible sponsor (25 percent of basic prices).

See also ABC’s Policy Relating to NIE Copies Served to College Students.

For information on how Registered College Student electronic editions should be disclosed on ABC documents, please refer to the Reporting section on electronic editions.

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