Rules & Resources
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Home-Delivery Promotions Guidebook—Canadian 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 25.1 Premium Defined

Pricing

ABC rules require that when a premium is offered with a subscription, the consumer must pay at least one cent, plus no less than the full value of the premium. See Rules C 21.1 Paid Circulation Defined and C 25.2 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.

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 subscriptions sold with premiums 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 subscriptions sold with premiums is based on the net value of the subscription—the offer price less the value of the premium.

  • 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 &.

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

Paragraph 8 lists all of the premiums that were offered, the value of the premium, and the term, frequency, and price of the subscriptions sold with a premiums offered.


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