ABC Approves New Reader Profile FAS-FAX

By: Jennifer Saba The Audit Bureau of Circulations announced today a new FAS-FAX report for Reader Profiles. The new FAS-FAX will be released at the same time as the circulation FAS-FAX starting with the March 2006 report.

The bird's eye view will include top line information taken from Reader Profiles including readers by gender and age segments, household income, reach percentages, readers per copy, and readers by acquisition source. ABC counts 300 member newspapers participating in Reader Profile reports. Seventy-three are in the top 75 designated markets areas.

Additionally, the board agreed upon the look of the insert verification program report. The format will include average paid circulation from the paper's last audit report or the past two publisher's statements. The report, issued every two years, will list the net and gross errors found during the audit. ABC said during a conference call today that 25 newspapers including the Chicago Tribune, The Miami Herald, and the Houston Chronicle are taking part in the program.

The board voted to restrict some third-party sales with the addition of several stipulations including a two-week advance notice to ABC of program details and a $25,000 limit on the value of a barter item.

ABC now has more leeway to reprimand members without imposing censure. The sanctions may include exclusion from the FAS-FAX report and semi-annual audits for two years.

Also noteworthy, the board's key action was to approve a new optional service called "Rapid Report," starting in July. It only affects magazines -- for the moment -- but allows publishers to have more up-to-date circulation data.

Magazines have the option to report circulation by issue, within weeks of the "on sale" date. The data will be stored online and will list top line circulation, subscriptions, single-copy sales, and total paid, verified, and analyzed non-paid circulation.

"ABC's Rapid Report service will allow us to be more responsive to market demands, provide greater accountability to our advertisers, and demonstrate the superb value of print media," said David Leckey, executive vice president of consumer marketing at American Media, in a statement.

ABC President Michael Lavery said during a conference call this morning the information will not be audited but will be included in audit reports. ABC will evaluate the program for newspapers.