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Single-Copy Promotions Guidebook—Canadian Newspapers

Premiums

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

  • Free
    • “Buy a newspaper today and get a free donut!”
    • The donut is a premium.
  • A discount
    • “Buy a newspaper today and get 40¢ off the purchase of any bottle of water!”
    • The 40-cent discount 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 would apply.
  • 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.
  • Merchandise offered to consumer where receipt of that item is not contingent on the purchase of the newspaper.

See also Rule C 5.1 Premium Defined

Pricing

ABC rules require that when a premium is offered in a single-copy sale, the consumer must pay at least one cent, plus no less than the full value of the premium.

See Rule C 5.2 Premiums with Subscriptions/Single Copy Sales and Rule C 10.1 Paid Circulation.

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 the consumer to buy 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 selling price of the newspaper.
  • State the premium being offered with the sale of the newspaper.
  • Reflect a qualifying price.

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

Examples—Premiums

Reporting

Circulation generated from single issues sold with premiums is classified as single copy 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 single issues sold with premiums is based on the net value of the newspaper—the offer price less the value of the premiums.

  • If the net value of the newspaper is 50 percent or more of basic prices, the circulation is included in Paragraph 1A.

  • If the net value of the newspaper 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 were purchased by the consumer.

Paragraph 8 lists all of the premiums that were offered, the value of the premium, and the price at which the copies were sold.



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