Circ Rule Change Wins First Approval

Folio: The Magazine for Magazine Management, April, 2001 by Sarah Gonser, Bob Moseley, Cindy Gillis

Jettisoning the 50 percent rule does not appeal to everyone; some worry it will make it harder for quality magazines to shine.

The Audit Bureau or Circulations has given first passage to rule changes about how ABC defines, qualifies and reports paid circulation for consumer magazines. Following input by ABC members, final approval is anticipated in July.

The initiative was expected to get first passage in November, but publishers and advertisers disagreed on how much information should be disclosed by publishers in the ABC statement. "This is a compromise--no one on either side is totally happy," says John Payne, senior vice president of member services for ABC. But he adds that most agree it is a step forward.

Magazine Publishers of America has declined to take any position on the proposed rule change, according to spokesman Nathan Christopher. Reaction among individuals affected by the potential change is mixed.

"I don't think anyone's a loser," says Jeremy Koch, senior vice president of consumer marketing for Time Inc. "We got more flexibility to price and sell in combination. That's a big win for publishers. I think it's a reasonable gain for publishers, and I don't think advertisers lost anything."

But Nina La France, vice president of consumer marketing for Red Herring, disagrees. She worries that accepting paid circulation as less than half the basic price will make it more difficult for titles with quality circulation and demographics to be recognized.

"I'm comfortable with the rules the way they stand," says La France, whose magazine saw a 94 percent rise in circulation, to 315,633, during the last half of 2000, as compared to the same period the year prior. "If advertisers want and need more disclosure, we could have accommodated that. You could see paid numbers rising all over the place."

Tyler Schaeffer, director of brand media planning for FCB Worldwide, does not object to a rule change, but stresses the need to disclose sales information. "I agree there should be an evolution of the rules, but we [buyers and advertisers] all want to retain the ability to assess true value. I'd like to press for more timely data," he says.

That surprises Koch. "We've got auditors crawling all over us as it is)" he says. "No other medium reveals even close to the amount of information that magazines do."