Rules & Resources
Newspaper Support Center

Home-Delivery Promotions Guidebook—U.S. Newspapers

Free—Part of a Single Subscription Term Stated as Free

A newspaper may wish to construct a new or renewal subscription offer where part of the total term of delivery (subscription length) is presented to the consumer as free, trial, risk-free, no additional cost, bonus, no extra charge or other synonymous language.

The circulation associated with the entire period of delivery has the opportunity to be classified as paid circulation on ABC reports provided the promotional material presents a perceived cost to the consumer for the entire subscription term. This may be accomplished by stating the full-delivery term and cost of the subscription in the contract portion of the order. See Rule C 1.1 Paid Circulation Defined, section (d).

The contract portion of the order is the material the consumer returns to the publisher such as:

  • The direct mail card.
  • The portion of a solicitation flyer that must be mailed to the publication.
  • The order page on the Internet.
  • The point of verbal agreement in a telemarketing script or inbound call.

Pricing

ABC rules require that a subscriber pay at least 25 percent of the basic home-delivery prices, net of all considerations—or the entire delivery term of the subscription, inclusive of the weeks represented as free.

Promotional Material

All promotional material must:

  • State the term of the subscription that is paid and the term that is free.
  • State the frequency of the subscription.
  • State the purchase price.
  • Contain language in the contract portion of the offer that states the full-delivery term and purchase price of the subscription.
  • Reflect a qualifying price for the entire term of delivery.

For Easy Pay offers, if part of a term is presented as free, then the promotional material must contain language that implies value to the free term with a paid portion of the offer. For example, if it solicits “Choose Easy Pay and get the first 4 weeks free,” then the value can be implied by stating, “That’s the first 8 weeks for the price of 4.”

Examples—Part of a Single Subscription Term Stated as Free

Reporting

Since part of the term is presented as free to the consumer, the end result is an offer at a reduced price (discount). Therefore, the reporting is the same as that for reduced prices (discounts).

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

In Paragraph 1A, the circulation would be 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 price the consumer actually paid for the full delivery term of the subscription (inclusive of the portion represented as free).

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 at reduced prices during the period covered by the statement. This disclosure includes the frequency and total delivery term of the subscriptions.

Paragraph 5B lists the reduced prices at which the subscriptions were sold. This listing includes the frequency, total delivery term and price at which the subscriptions were purchased.


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