Regional Publications reporting standards changes (UK) – July 2010
- Regular & issue specific bulk sales: key principles have been agreed in relation to bulk sales for airlines and international rail services.
- Editorial content percentage: free publications to report an editorial content percentage into one of four bandings, rather than an advertising percentage figure.
- Free pick up copies: the requirements for top ups of free pick up copies have been clarified.
- Free pick up copies: Iit has been agreed to allow more flexibility in varying free pick up distribution to take account of a variety of planned and unplanned circumstances. There are a number of controls on changes and reporting requirements to ensure there is transparency in the more significant changes
- Free pick up copies: non-daily publications may carry out street distribution (either via hand merchandisers or dispensing bins) providing the supply and returns cycle is less than 24 hours.
- In-house controlled direct delivery and subscriptions: the requirement to report to ABC with the claim details of unpaid copies in this category has been removed as it is covered by audit.
Regional Publications reporting standards changes (UK) – May 2010
- Cover Price: The current requirement to publish a cover price on or within every sold copy is changing from July 2010 so that it must be published on the front and/or back page of every sold copy.
- Firm sale newstrade and multiple copy sales:
It is clarified that from the July to December 2010 reporting period reciprocal payments made by the publisher or reciprocal charges made by a purchaser of a publication (not the consumer) as part of a firm sale newstrade or multiple copy sale deal must be taken into account when considering whether ABC requirements are met.
- Free pick up and multiple copy sales (capping):
From the July to December 2010 reporting period: Daily publications claiming free pick up copies distributed to airlines and trains must apply caps rather than report a net figure. The method of calculating the cap for multiple copy sales and free pick up copies delivered to airlines will change.
- Free pick up copies:
With effect from the April 2010 reporting period it is confirmed that copies claimed in the free pick up category, as long as they meet the free pick up requirements, may be onwardly sold. In this situation the payment would be ignored for ABC purposes.
- Free Digital Edition copies: It is clarified that from the July to December 2010 reporting period all hard bounce backs should be excluded from free digital edition copy claims, not just SMTP 550 errors.
Regional Publications reporting standards changes (UK) – December 2009
- Free requested, delivered copies: From reporting periods commencing January 2010 onwards the requirement for free requested delivered copies to be sent to the same individuals each issue (or by day of week) is to be removed but the requirement that the number of copies delivered must be of a similar number from issue to issue (or similar number by day of week) remains.
Regional Publications reporting standards changes (UK) – October 2009
- Free requested, posted copies: This category has been renamed Free requested, delivered copies.
- Daily publications/free circulation: From January 2010 daily publications may vary their free circulation by day of the week. See letter for details. Any daily publication with free circulation will be required to break out their day of week averages by each circulation type.
- Free letterbox delivery: The reduced back checking level of 0.25% of gross distribution for weekly publications using random telephone back checking will continue beyond 2009.
- Optional reporting periods: Publishers will from January 2010 be able to report optional 3 month certificates in addition to their mandatory reporting periods. See letter for details.
Regional Publications reporting standards changes (ROI) – October 2009
- Free letterbox delivery: The reduced back checking level of 0.25% of gross distribution for weekly publications using random telephone back checking will continue beyond 2009.
- Optional reporting periods: Publishers will from January 2010 be able to report optional 3 month certificates in addition to their mandatory reporting periods. See letter for details.
Regional Publications reporting standards changes (UK) – June 2009
- Reporting periods: In exceptional cases where changes to a title may lead to six-month averages presenting a confusing or misleading picture a publication may, with the agreement of ABC and the Reporting Standards Group, issue more than one certificate within a period.
- Multiple copy sales/free pick up copies: Clarification of treatment of caps where there the cap is exceeded by a combination of publications in a particular location
- Free pick-up copies:
Distribution point definition and evidence (i.e. micro level and team/group evidence)
Regional Publications reporting standards changes (ROI) – June 2009
- Reporting periods: In exceptional cases where changes to a title may lead to six-month averages presenting a confusing or misleading picture a publication may, with the agreement of ABC and the Reporting Standards Group, issue more than one certificate within a period.
- Multiple copy sales: Clarification of treatment of caps where there the cap is exceeded by a combination of publications in a particular location
Regional Publications reporting standards change – February 2009
- Free letterbox delivery: Temporary reduction in minimum level of back checks required for weekly publications using the random telephone back check method (effective Monday 9th February 2009 until end of 2009)
Regional Publications reporting standards changes (UK) – December 2008
- Multiple copy sales/free pick up copies: clarification that caps cannot be double counted at a particular location
- Multiple copy sales: clarification of application of caps for multiple copy sales sold at full price
- Reporting of average advertising content and average pagination (publications whose newstrade, single copy & subs sales is less than 25%): clarification of how these are calculated
Regional Publications reporting standards changes (ROI) – December 2008
- Multiple copy sales: clarification that caps cannot be double counted at a particular location
- Multiple copy sales: clarification of application of caps for multiple copy sales sold at full price
- Reporting of average advertising content and average pagination (publications whose newstrade, single copy & subs sales is less than 25%): clarification of how these are calculated
Regional Publications reporting standards changes (UK) - October 2008
- Free pick up copies (daily publications only): both the last Saturday and last non-Saturday issue in the period must be analysed by type of distribution point
- Cover price: rule amended to bring into line with practice that cover prices of each issue in the last week of the period will be reported
- Overseas copies: rule amended to reflect previously agreed reporting of overseas newstrade and single copy sales figures within that category as one figure
- Special Editions: a deadline of 15 working days has been introduced when applying to include a Special Edition
Regional Publications reporting standards changes (ROI) - October 2008
- Cover price: rule amended to bring into line with practice that cover prices of each issue in the last week of the period will be reported
- Overseas copies: rule amended to reflect previously agreed reporting of overseas newstrade and single copy sales figures within that category as one figure
- Special Editions: a deadline of 15 working days has been introduced when applying to include a Special Edition
Regional Publications reporting standards changes (UK) - June 2008
- Free pick up copies (non-daily publications only): Must be reported on a capped basis (in the same way as bulk sales). A new range of caps has been introduced and a facility to increase a cap for a specific distribution point if it can demonstrated that regular circulation has increased at that point
Regional Publications reporting standards changes (ROI) - June 2008
- Editions: Two editions requirements have been removed for Republic of Ireland publications. The first is that editions must have a similar editorial to advertising ratio and the second relates to restrictions on changes in pagination between editions.
Regional Publications reporting standards changes (UK) - March 2008
- Supplements – pagination: exceeding the 30% pagination limit for an edition
- Free letterbox delivery – back checking: Use of mobile telephone numbers
- Free pick up copies: time limit for verifying net distribution (non-daily publications)
- Free pick up copies: publications with a seasonal audience
- Free pick up copies: rewrite of the free pick up section
- Audit process: Optional less frequent auditing scheme available for certain publications
Regional Publications reporting standards changes (ROI) - March 2008
- Supplements – pagination: exceeding the 30% pagination limit for an edition
- Free letterbox delivery – back checking: Use of mobile telephone numbers
- Audit process: Optional less frequent auditing scheme available for certain publications
Regional Publications reporting standards changes (UK) - December 2007 (effective from January 2008)
- Publicising ABC figures
- Reporting monthly circulation figures
- Free pick up copies: reporting, dates of distribution, analysing the last issue
Regional Publications reporting standards changes (ROI) - December 2007 (effective from January 2008)
- Analysing total circulation into reporting ROI, NI and other
- Various other changes: reporting periods, reporting of data, editions, changes to VFD
New Regional Publications Reporting Standards – October 2007 (effective from January 2008)
Summary of changes for regional paid publications
Summary of changes for regional free (VFD) publications