Rules & Resources
Newspaper Support Center

Home-Delivery Promotions Guidebook—Canadian Newspapers

Gift Subscriptions

A gift subscription is defined as a subscription purchased by an individual for another individual as a normal expression of friendship. The same individual may purchase gift subscriptions up to a quantity of 50.

Quantities of 50 gift subscriptions or more, purchased by a single individual, shall be considered third-party sales. Subscriptions purchased by a business entity to promote their professional or business interests, at any quantity, shall not be considered gift subscriptions. Rather, these sales would be considered third-party sales. See the guidelines for third-party sales.

Pricing

A qualifying price for the sale of two subscriptions to the same newspaper by a single individual, regardless if delivery addresses are different, is one cent per subscription, net of all considerations.

Promotional Material

All promotional material must:

  • Identify the number of subscriptions in the sale.
  • State the term and frequency of each subscription.
  • State the purchase price.
  • Reflect a qualifying price.
  • Exclude any reference to any of the subscriptions as being free, no additional cost, bonus, or other synonymous language.

Example—Gift Subscriptions

Reporting

Circulation generated from gift subscriptions 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 sales of gift subscriptions is based on the subscription price offered to the consumer.

  • If the price offered for the subscription is 50 percent or more of basic prices, the circulation is included in Paragraph 1A.
  • If the price offered for the subscription is less than 50 percent of basic prices, the circulation is included in Paragraph 1B, with further disclosure in Paragraph 1G.

In Paragraph 2, the circulation is classified in the proper reporting zone based on where the copies are delivered to the subscriber.

See also multiple subscriptions to the same newspaper.


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