Choosing the right audit service; understanding the differences between ABC audits and BPA audits will make it easier to know which to choose for your magazine

Folio: The Magazine for Magazine Management, Nov, 1987 by Barry J. Green

Choosing the right audit service

Ten or so years ago, I wrote an article for FOLIO: that described the two major business press audit firms: ABC and BPA. During those 10 years, much has happened. At a glance, it appears that many of the differences in the audit firms have become less obvious-- to the point of extreme similarity in many areas. In this article, I will compare the two audit firms and analyze them in as much detail as possible. Two 75-page Rule Books are difficult to condense to a seven-page article.

I wish to thank Michael Marchesano, vice president marketing, BPA, and Thomas F. Cory, manager, business publications, ABC, for their assistance in this update and beg their indulgence with some of my personal observations.

Many people in the business publishing industry have letter combinations uppermost in their minds all day, every day. The general public thinks of IRS, but the publishing community has ABC and/or BPA (as well as USPS) etched in their minds. We prepare publisher's statements, maintain records in auditable condition, analyze the competition's data and qualification procedures, and try to remain within the boundaries of the bylaws and rules of these audit bureaus: ABC = Audit Bureau of Circulations; BPA = Business Publications Audit of Circulation, Inc.

As is expected, the objectives of the two organizations are to issue standardized statements of circulation and other statistics for the benefit of their members and the publishing industry in general, and to conduct examinations of publishers' records to verify the accuracy of the data reported.

Membership: Type, size, requirements

ABC has seven classes of membership --advertisers, advertising agencies, associate members, business publication publishers, farm publication publishers, magazine publishers (consumer) and newspaper publishers. BPA maintains four classes of membership-- advertisers, advertising agencies, publishers of business publications and associate members. Not long ago, the Selected Market Audit Division of BPA changed its name to Consumer Audit BPA to expand its horizons and serve more nonbusiness press publishers.

Although ABC has a much greater "overall' membership total, in the business press field approximately 305 belong to ABC and approximately 1,250 to BPA (a 27 percent increase for ABC and a 92 percent increase for BPA over the last 10 years). BPA members may report any combination of paid and nonpaid circulation, while ABC will accept business publications that report nonpaid circulation only if the combination of paid and nonpaid request circulation totals at least 50 percent of the total of the publication. Thus, a business publication that gathers over half of its circulation through directories, association rosters, independent field reports, or franchise lists is not eligible for ABC membership.

For instance, BPA has approximately 90 publications in the "Physicians' field, most of which derive their circulations as a selection off the American Medical Association Computerized files. (Of course, to mail at second class postal rates they are supposed to have over 50 percent request data and conceivably could be ABC audited--but most are BPA and do not report their request data on their BPA statements.) ABC does have a "provisional basis' membership for a publication while it is converting to meet request and/or paid standards.

The boards of directors of the firms are composed as follows:

ABC--33 members: 11 advertiser company representatives, seven advertiser agency representatives, eight newspaper publisher representatives, three magazine publisher representatives, two business publisher representatives, one farm publisher representative and one Canadian periodical publisher representative.

BPA--25 members: Seven advertiser company representatives, seven advertiser agency representatives and 11 publisher representatives.

The board chairman of each must be an advertiser company or advertising agency representative. Each board of directors controls the management of the firm and appoints the chief executive officer ("president' at BPA and "president and managing director' at ABC). Appeals of staff decisions within each firm may be made to the board. The boards review charges that are made purporting that a member has committed an offense contrary to the rules and bylaws; serve on various committees; and manage and control the conduct and operation of the bureaus. In both cases, board members serve without pay.

Applications for membership for each organization are made on forms specifically provided by each and require that the applicant deposit a sum of money with the application. For ABC application, the deposit is equivalent to the estimated cost of the initial audit (established by the managing director). For BPA application, the deposit is equal to the annual dues, initial audit charge (based on the total distribution of the publication), plus an application fee of 25 percent of the above two figures. Once the application has been made, the steps toward membership vary.