From Editor & Publisher, July 19

ABC Meeting Produces Key New Procedures

By E&P Staff

The Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC) announced this morning actions taken by its board at its just-concluded July 13-16 meeting. The board also announced that the Bureau's fiscal 2006 budget does not include a rate increase. ABC said its 91st Annual Conference and Meeting, “Accountability: the Rules of Engagement,” will be held Nov. 2-4, 2005 at the Sheraton Bal Harbour, Bal Harbour, Fla.

The newspaper provisions, effective immediately, read as follows in its official statement:

--The board voted to reintroduce the “green stamp” model for purposes of placing a valuation on bartered items. This model will require that bartered items be redeemable for a broad selection of goods or services or have a cash-out option. Single-use barter payments will no longer qualify as non-cash currencies for the purchase of newspapers.

--The board also approved a new day-of-week report format for Publisher's Statements, FAS-FAX and Audit Reports that will include reporting of and definitions for core newspaper and replica electronic editions, non-replica electronic editions and unique editions. Definitions for these terms are described below:

Core Newspaper and Replica Electronic Editions

* The edition must have full run-of-press (ROP) capability.
* The edition should be in the same format as the main newspaper.
* The edition should be in the same language as the main newspaper.
* The edition should be targeted to same type of consumer as the main newspaper

Non-replica Electronic Edition

* The edition must be able to accept ROP advertising.
* The edition must meet the same paid circulation requirements as the main newspaper.
* The edition should have the same general appearance as the main newspaper.
* The edition should have the same identity / name as the main newspaper.
* The edition's editorial content should be consistent with the main newspaper and unique editions.

--The board also voted to modify Rule C 5.5 Newspapers Distributed Together so that a newspaper with less than daily and Sunday frequency may include copies of another newspaper in its subscription term on one day only, rather than on multiple days.

--The board also approved the creation of an audit service to address the verification of insert delivery. Anticipated availability of this new service is projected for early 2006.

--ABC's board of directors also considered expanding ABC's services to encompass any non-paid newspaper properties that are primarily home-delivered and revising membership eligibility requirements so that ABC's standards could be applied across these newspapers (regardless of ownership).

Reader Profile
Effective Immediately (July 18, 2005)

The board voted to modify existing standards so that “Any source of copy producing 100 or more respondents will be required to be reported completely in Paragraph 5 of the Reader Profile Audit Report.”

The board also approved changing the data-longevity standard as applied to Reader Profile reports to allow a bonus shelf life of six months for expiring custom studies when a participating publication has renewed their participation with a new audited study.

The board also adopted a requirement that all Reader Profile data delivered by the research supplier to the newspaper must also be provided to ABC within five business days.

For All Publications
Effective July 30, 2005

ABC's board of directors approved an “Audit Status Listing” to be made available on ABC's Web site Aug.1, 2005. The objective of the listing will be to provide current status reports, along with the date each audit was moved to its current status, for all open audits -- and, where applicable, to provide specific data on the most recently released audit for all publisher members.

All audits will carry one of the following descriptors -- as applicable:

* Released (date) - this will identify audits that are released and available to members.
* Final report process -- this term will identify audits that have all field work completed and are working their way through the internal review process - to include audits that may be out on proof copy to the publisher.
* Assigned, pending arrival of auditor -- to be used whenever an audit has been assigned to an auditor, however the auditor has not commenced work on the assignment.
* Audit in progress -- this term will identify all audits where work is underway however the auditor has not completed the assignment.
* Publisher requested delay in audit -- to be used only when an audit has not been started and the publisher wishes to defer the start to a point outside the 'expected time parameters' for a publication in the division (e.g. six months for newspapers; nine months for periodicals).
* On hold, awaiting publisher data -- this will describe situations where the auditor is in a position to start -- or continue -- an audit assignment, however the publisher has not supplied all the data necessary to complete the assignment.
* On hold, awaiting auditor -- to annotate cases in which ABC has initiated an audit but the auditor left prior to completing the audit for reasons out of the publisher's control.