Rules & Resources
Newspaper Support Center

Home-Delivery Promotions Guidebook—U.S. Newspapers

Premiums

Premiums are defined as any item or inducement offered to an individual to entice them to purchase a subscription. The premium item could be anything that is:

  • Free
      ­
    • “Buy a subscription and get a free $20 gift card to a local home improvement store!”
      • ­
    • The gift card is a premium.

  • A discount
      ­
    • “Buy a subscription and get a coupon for $5.00 off your next oil change!”
    • The $5.00 coupon is a premium.
    • Note: Coupons in the newspaper (ROP and FSI) are not considered premiums.

The following items are not considered premiums:

  • Publications (newspaper and periodical) published four or more times per year. In these cases, combination sales rules and guidelines apply.
  • Part of the subscription term. See the section on part of a single subscription term stated as free.
  • Free or discounted access to the archives or back content.
  • Free or discounted access to online content or electronic edition from the same editorial home page of the publication.
  • Anything sent free by mail with the subscription offer or sample merchandise that can be ordered and received regardless if a subscription is purchased.
  • Items offered to current paid subscribers as an inducement to convert to payment method for a future subscription.
  • See also Rule C 5.1 Premium Defined

Pricing

ABC rules require that when a premium is offered with a subscription, the consumer must pay at least 25 percent of basic home-delivery prices, plus no less than the full value of the premium. See Rule C 5.2 Premiums with Subscriptions/Single Copy Sales

The full value of the premium is considered to be the highest of the following:

  • Stated value (value stated on the promotional material)
  • Retail value (price it would cost a consumer to buy the item in the public marketplace)
  • Cost to publisher (cost to obtain or produce the item)

In some cases, an item may not be sold to the public and the promotional material will not state a value. In those cases, the cost to publisher would be used to determine the premium value. However, if more than one value exists, the premium value is always considered the highest value for ABC qualification.

For Easy Pay offers, the circulation may be claimed as paid once the subscriber has made enough debit or credit card payments to cover the minimum of 25 percent of the basic home-delivery price for the term delivered, plus no less than the full value of the premium. If a subscriber cancels prior to making a sufficient number of payments to meet the pricing requirement, then the circulation may not be claimed as paid on ABC documents.

Promotional Material

All promotional material must:

  • State the term and frequency of the subscription.
  • State the purchase price.
  • State the premium being offered with the sale of the newspaper.
  • Reflect a qualifying price.

The promotional material may state that the premium is free to the consumer with the purchase of the subscription. The subscription itself may not be stated or implied as free.

Examples—Premiums

Reporting

Circulation generated from subscription sales with premiums is reflected in Paragraphs 1A, 2, 4 and 6B 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 price the consumer actually paid for the subscription.

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 with premiums during the period covered by the statement. This disclosure includes the frequency and term of the subscriptions.

Paragraph 6B lists all of the premiums that were offered, the value of the premium, and the term, frequency, and price of the subscriptions with which the premiums were offered.


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