Rules & Resources
Newspaper Support Center

Home-Delivery Promotions Guidebook—U.S. Newspapers

Combination Sales

Combination sales include the sale of two or more different publications as a package to new or renewal subscribers.

A subscription combination sale is defined as the sale of a subscription to two or more different publications as a package during new, renewal or billing efforts, and where each publication in the sale is a priced product. A newspaper subscription may be sold in combination with another newspaper or a periodical.

Please note that a subscription to each publication in a combination package must be generally available for sale in the marketplace independent of each other.

Pricing

A publication may create a solicitation piece for combination sales as follows:

  • Promoting only the sale of the combination package.
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    • Sale of both publications for one package price.

  • Promoting the combination package as well as a subscription to one or both of the publications individually (optional). ­

    • The sale of one or both publications individually in the solicitation piece is optional.

If the solicitation material is promoting the sale of only the combination package, then the purchase price offered to the subscriber must be a minimum of the following:

  • 25 percent of the basic home-delivery prices for each newspaper in the sale, plus
  • One cent per periodical in the sale.

If the solicitation material is promoting the combination package as well as a subscription to one or both of the publications individually, then the purchase price offered to the subscriber for the combination must be a minimum of the following:

  • 100 percent of the selling price for the subscription with the highest individual subscription price involved in the sale.
  • 25 percent of the basic home-delivery price for each additional newspaper and one cent for each additional periodical subscription in the sale.

Promotional Material

All promotional material must:

  • State the publications involved in the combination package.
  • State the term for all publications in the package (and frequency for newspapers involved).
  • State the purchase price for the combination package.
  • State the purchase price for a subscription to one or both publications individually, if offered (optional).
  • Reflect a qualifying price.
  • Exclude any reference to any of the publications as being free, no additional cost, bonus, or other synonymous language.

Examples—Combination Sales

Reporting

Circulation generated from home-delivery combination sales is reflected in Paragraphs 1A, 2, 4 and 5B of the ABC Publisher’s Statement.

In Paragraph 1A, the circulation is classified as Home Delivery under Paid for by Individual Recipients. For individually paid circulation, ABC requires a newspaper to delineate between circulation sold at 50 percent or more of basic prices and circulation sold at less than 50 percent, but at least 25 percent of basic prices. Therefore, the subscription copies should be included in the appropriate price category based on the value of the subscription.

For reporting purposes, the value of each subscription in a combination sale must be determined. The monetary value allocated to each subscription may be determined in one of two ways:

  1. The value of each publication in a combination package as stated, if stated in the offer.
  2. A pro rata of each publication’s basic home-delivery prices, if no individual values are stated. (For periodicals, you would use the publisher’s annual suggested price.)

    For example:
    Publication A and Publication B (both are one-year subscriptions) are sold in combination for a price of $100.00. Publication A and Publication B have one-year home-delivery basic prices of $50.00 and $150.00 respectively. This means the combination has a basic price value of $200.00. Publication A represents 25 percent and Publication B represents 75 percent of the total package value. Since the combination package sold for $100.00, then the value for reporting purposes of Publication A is $25.00 (25 percent of $100.00) and Publication B is $75.00 (75 percent of $100.00).

In Paragraph 2, the circulation is classified as Home Delivery, based on the specific ABC zone where the copies are delivered to the subscriber.

Paragraph 4 discloses the number of new and renewal subscriptions sold in combination during the period covered by the statement. This disclosure includes the frequency and term of the subscriptions.

Paragraph 6B will include a description of the combination sales programs. For each program, the description will identify the name of the publications involved, the price(s) at which the combination package was sold, and the average number of copies included in average paid circulation.

See also Rule C 5.3 Combination Sales


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