Rules & ResourcesNewspaper Support Center
Home-Delivery Promotions Guidebook—Canadian Newspapers
Charitable Donations
A newspaper may decide to donate a portion of the consumer’s subscription purchase price to a charitable organization and use this as an incentive to generate home-delivery circulation.
A newspaper may not use revenue from subscription sales to generate funds for Newspapers in Education.
Pricing
When a subscription to the newspaper is sold where the consumer is informed that a portion of the purchase price will be donated to a charity, the amount paid by the consumer must be no less than one cent, plus the amount presented to the consumer as a donation.
See Rule C 25.7 Sponsored Subscriptions and Rule C 21.1 Paid Circulation Defined.
Promotional Material
All promotional material must:
- State the term and frequency of the subscription.
- State the purchase price.
- Indicate the specific amount of the donation and name of charity.
- Reflect a qualifying price
Reporting
Circulation generated from the sale of subscriptions inclusive of a charitable donation is classified as Home Delivery on the ABC Publisher’s Statement.
Canadian Publisher's Statements delineate between circulation sold at 50 percent or more of basic prices and circulation sold at less than 50 percent of basic prices.
The price classification for charitable donation subscriptions is based on the net value of the subscription—the offer price less the amount of the donation.
- If the net value of the subscription is 50 percent or more of basic prices, the circulation is included in Paragraph 1A.
- If the net value of the subscription is less than 50 percent of basic prices, the circulation is included in Paragraph 1B, with further disclosure in Paragraphs 1G and 7.
In Paragraph 2, the circulation is classified in the proper reporting zone based on where the copies are delivered to the subscriber.
Paragraph 8 will provide a description of all charitable donation programs, including the price at which the subscriptions were sold, the amount of the donation, the name of the charity and the quantity of subscriptions sold.