Single-Copy Promotions Guidebook—U.S. Newspapers

Charitable Donations

A newspaper may decide to donate a portion of the consumer’s single-copy purchase price to a charitable organization and use this as an incentive to generate single-copy sales.

A newspaper may not use revenue from newspaper sales to generate funds for Newspapers in Education.

Pricing

When a single issue of 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 25 percent of basic single-copy prices plus the amount presented to the consumer as a donation.

See also Rule C 5.7 Sponsored Subscriptions

Promotional Material

All promotional material must:

• State the selling price of the newspaper.
• Indicate the specific amount of the donation.
• Reflect a qualifying price

Example—Charitable Donations

Reporting

Circulation generated from single-copy sales with charitable donations is reflected in Paragraphs 1A, 2, and 6B of the ABC Publisher’s Statement.

In Paragraph 1A, the circulation is classified as Single-Copy Sales 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, single-issue sales should be included in the appropriate price category based on the price the consumer actually paid for the newspaper.

In Paragraph 2, the circulation is classified as Single Copy (Individual), based on the specific ABC zone where the sale to the consumer occurred.

Paragraph 6B will include a description of all charitable donation programs. For each program, the description will identify the price at which the copies were sold to the consumer, the amount of the donation, the name of the charity and the quantity of newspapers sold.