The rule changes are:
Reporting of editions
The reporting and auditing of editions is to be simplified. For issues distributed on or after 2 January 2012 all editions reported on the ABC certificate will be reported with an average circulation and breakout by circulation type, not just those with a change in ROP (display) advertising which has been the case up to this point.
Paid Postal Subscriptions – reporting of overseas copies
From reporting periods beginning January 2012 the requirement to break out overseas paid postal subscriptions is removed if they are less than 5% of the total average figure claimed in the category Newstrade, Single Copy and Subscription Sales.
Single copy sales – counter sales (non-daily publications)
For issues distributed on or after 2nd January 2012 publishers of non-daily publications are allowed to treat their counter sales made in a week as a sale of that week’s issue, simplifying the record keeping needed. This will alleviate the need to record separately by issue the counter sales of different issues.
Exclusion of copies purchased by press cutting agencies
For issues distributed on or after 2 January 2012 the requirement to exclude copies purchased by press cutting agencies is removed. The reason for this change is that experience shows the number of copies involved is small and the effort required to track and remove these copies from ABC claims is disproportionate.
Social Media
Rules have been added to the Regional Publication Reporting Standards to allow the reporting of a basic measure of social media audience(s) on a product’s Multi-Platform Certificate (note: not on the ABC print certificate). Examples might be Facebook ‘Likes’ or Twitter ‘Followers’. This can be reported from January 2012.
Click here for full information about these regional publication changes.
