BPA Worldwide Blog

Electronic editions and interactive rules top BPA Board rules votes

Below, we have summarized new rule circulation audit amendments passed by BPA Worldwide’s Board of Directors at their May 2009 meeting.

Unless otherwise specified, all changes are effective immediately.

The Rule Amendments/New Rules may be accessed through the “Rules” link on the BPA home page, or by clicking here.

Or, if you prefer, please contact your BPA Member Relations Manager, or any of our audit staff, if you have questions. MRM contacts can be found on the BPA website.

Board Actions Applying to Business Publications and Consumer Magazines

Print to electronic conversion. In a nod toward media owners’ continued migration to digital platforms, the board voted to allow media owners the option of converting request subscriptions from print to electronic format if proper advance notification and an opt-out with each issue is provided to the subscriber.

Non-requested electronic editions. Following months of discussion and debate among publishers, advertisers and media buyers (on this blog and in meetings), the board reaffirmed that to be considered “qualified” circulation an electronic edition must be requested; however, the board also voted to allow the reporting of non-request electronic editions as “non-qualified” circulation on BPA statements and audit reports provided the recipients meet the publication’s stated Field Served and Definition of Recipient Qualification parameters. These demographics must be reported in the Additional Data paragraph of the statement. (Without the demographic information, the electronic edition may not be claimed on the statement.)

Interactive rules. The board approved new rules for BPA’s Interactive Audit product line, which provides audited web traffic data to its print and events members at no additional cost. The rules were developed in concert with IAB Audience Reach Measurement Guidelines. Effective with the June 2009 reporting period, media owners reporting “live” data in BPA’s Interactive tool can now have the traffic data on circulation statements and audit reports.  Click here to see the new interactive data reporting format.

Personal Direct Request. Recognizing a request to receive a subscription may come from a subscriber’s spouse or authorized personal assistant, the board voted to rename the “Personal direct request from the recipient” source to “Direct Request” within paragraphs B*3b and C*5 on circulation statements and audit reports.

B = BtoB rule, C = Consumer rule, N = Newspaper rule

Association Request. Under current BPA rules, B3b/C5 source reporting of subscriptions requested by an association executive for their members is categorized under “association rosters and directories.” The subscriptions do not count as “company request” and certainly not “Direct Request”. The U.S. Postal Service does not count these copies as “request” either.

The BPA rule for company request states, “Questionnaires or letters on a company letterhead from firms, including franchises, requesting copies of a publication for employees identified by name, title and/or function may be reported as written request from recipient's company.” Since the association is not the employer of the individual, BPA does not report requests by association executives for their members in this category.

To disclose the difference between those media owners who obtain an association roster or directory and send copies versus a publisher who cultivates a relationship with an association to the point of generating a request from the executive, the board voted to allow media owners to disclose the executive director’s request in an “Additional Data” table footnote on the circulation statement.

Projecting B3b/C5 and B3c on merged publications. In 2006 the BPA board approved amending rules to allow publishers to project paragraph 3b and 3c for Business, and paragraph 5 for Consumer, if the circulation decreased by any amount from the previous audit analysis issue. (The rule previously had a 10% limit.) This change was made to help publishers react quickly to the changing dynamics of the publishing environment. At the time they reaffirmed maintaining the 10% increase threshold because they felt a decrease greater than 10% was acceptable; an increase of 10% or more was a substantial change to circulation, which should require the reporting of actual figures.

Given the current economic crisis, BPA has seen an increase in merged publications. It is not uncommon that the circulation of the surviving publication increases by more than 10% from the previous audit issue. This is creating a hardship as the publisher is not in a position to report actual figures on the interim issue from each of the merged publications.

The board voted to give media owners the option of reporting actual figures, post merger, when the increase is 10% or greater or omitting those paragraphs for the interim issue, with the omission due to the merger disclosed through a footnote on the statement.

Renew until forbid. The current BPA rules provide guidance for reporting “renew until forbid” subscriptions. In such a program, the subscriber provides a credit card and billing information with the initial order and gives permission to the publisher to renew the subscription, using the same credit card, until the subscriber forbids. Renew until forbid subscriptions are typically sold using a one-year term/interval. Some publishers are now charging subscribers on a monthly basis and this is creating a challenge for reporting paragraph B5/C3a, Total New and Renewed Qualified Paid Subscriptions Order/Sold for the Period.

For those cases in which publishers sell evergreen renew until forbid subscriptions without any renewal notification of a fixed term, the board voted to create a new category, “perpetual subscriptions,” in paragraph B5/C3a. Those publishers selling renew until forbid subscriptions with an annual “bridge letter” renewing the subscription may continue to report by term.

International arrears. A media owner recently expressed concern about the amount of time the BPA rules allow for arrears when a subscription is sold to a subscriber outside the country of the magazine or publication. The media owner noted there are many time and logistical challenges when dealing with subscribers outside their country and BPA’s current arrears rule of three months does not provide enough time to effectively market the renewal.

The board voted to extend the arrears period for media owner’s international subscriptions from three to six months.

Board Actions Applying to Newspapers Only

EMEA newspaper reporting cycles. BPA was informed by newspaper publishers in Europe and the Middle East that the current reporting period of six months ended March and September does not correspond with their business cycle. Reporting for the six-month period ended June and December would be a better fit with market conditions.

The BPA board unanimously agreed to change the newspaper reporting periods in these regions.

Occasional copies/conversion. According to Canadian daily newspaper rules, publishers may serve occasional “bonus” copies and may convert lower frequency subscriptions to higher frequency plans. However, some confusion exists regarding what defines an occasional copy and a conversion copy. Occasional copies were intended to serve as one-off copies to subscribers with less-than-daily frequency. These copies are typically served on civic and statutory holidays, such as Labor Day, Easter Monday, Thanksgiving Monday. 

The intent of conversion copies was to allow publishers to serve issues on a daily basis to subscribers of less-than-daily frequency in an attempt to up-sell the subscriber. Conversions to daily service typically apply to weekend-only subscribers or Saturday-only subscribers.

As a point of clarification, the board amended the rule to state occasional copies cannot be served for consecutive days. The board also voted to allow publishers to serve subscribers conversion copies in electronic format rather than print if proper advance notification and an opt-out is provided to the subscriber.

Educational copies. Newspapers served to educational institutions are reported as “Educational” copies under the heading of “Sponsored by Third Party or Free” in paragraph 1.

In the past, these copies were known as “Newspapers In Education” and were included with paid circulation. With the migration to BPA’s new daily newspaper format, these copies are no longer considered paid. In most cases, copies served to educational institutions have either been purchased directly by the institution or sponsored by a third-party. These copies must be supported by the combination of a signed agreement, invoices and proof-of-payment.

In the absence of invoices with supporting proof-of-payment documentation, the board voted to include a provision in the rules requiring publishers to maintain agreements with schools confirming they agree to accept and redistribute a specified number of copies for a defined period of time. Agreements may cover the school year, and exclude periods such as March Break and Christmas vacation. Agreements will help confirm copies were distributed. A similar requirement already exists in the Consumer magazine rules for bulk circulation.

Promotional incentives (premiums). Many daily newspapers offer subscribers promotional incentives as a means to grow subscriptions. Promotional incentives are also referred to as “premiums.”

Newspapers currently report circulation by price point: copies sold at or below 50% of the basic rate; and copies sold above 50% basic rate. The value of the promotional incentive can impact the reporting of copies. Taking this into consideration, the BPA board agreed to a change that subtracts the value of the promotional incentive from the offer price to determine more accurate price point reporting.

 Sponsored/Third Party circulation. At its last meeting in December 2008, the BPA board agreed to allow the reporting of individually addressed Canadian newspaper subscriptions purchased in lots of six (6) or more as “Sponsored by Third Party or Free”, while lots of five (5) or fewer are reported as “Paid For By Individual Recipient.”

BPA was made aware of a case in which a corporate franchisor purchases 200 copies on a daily basis with the intent of delivering five copies to each of its 40 retail locations. Since the franchisor serves as a collective buyer for the retail locations, and the retail locations were receiving five copies each for on premise reading by their patrons, the board voted to amend the rule to account for similar situations.

Board Actions Applying to all BPA Applicants

Application forfeiture/withdrawal. Applicants for membership in BPA Worldwide have 12 months to complete their initial audit. BPA rules allow applicants to promote their application during this time. If, for any reason, an applicant forfeits or withdraws, current policy states that the status of the application will be posted on the BPA website for six months.

After reviewing input from the Middle East advisory board, the corporate board voted to amend policy wherein notice of application forfeit or withdrawal will appear on the BPA website for same tenure as the application was posted. For example, if an application is withdrawn after nine months, notice of withdrawal will be posted to the website for the next nine months.

Please click on the "Comments" link at the end of this blog post to provide your feedback on these new and amended rules. I look forward to reading your thoughts and ideas.

Does the USPS' 24-page rule for request circulation still make sense?

Is your magazine less than 24 pages?

 

Ever since the USPS gave requested (controlled circulation) publications postal rate status equivalent to that of paid publications, a 24-page minimum rule (707.6.4) has been imposed on requesters that is not imposed on their paid counterparts.

 

The rule was put in, and has been kept there, based on the idea that the Periodicals class would be somehow cheapened if, for example, four pages--one of which was editorial--could be mailed at the same rate as, and with the same "status" as, other periodicals with far greater ad and edit page counts.

 

With the decline in ad pages, there are some requester publications that have had difficulty in the past few months reaching 24 pages with paid ads and quality editorial, but they are forced to spend scarce dollars producing and mailing additional pages to maintain the Periodicals rates.

 

Would you like to see the USPS rescind the 24-page rule? 

 

What do you think about changing the rule? Should it be maintained? Eliminated? Changed to some lower number of pages but not eliminated altogether?

 

I look forward to reading your comments.

BPA committees begin review of non-request electronic editions

Last week BPA’s advisory committees began reviewing the question of allowing to count as copies served those publishers’ e-mail alerts with a hyperlink to an electronic edition sent to individuals who did not request the magazine in its digital format.

BPA’s US Publishers Advisory, US Business Audience Development, US Consumer Audience Development, Fulfillment Manager Advisory and the European Audience Development/Fulfillment Advisory Committees shared their thoughts on this item.

US Audience Development Committee (ADAC)-Business.  Many committee members want to see non-requested electronic editions count as qualified circulation, but realize that the media buyers and the publishers are not in favor of such a move. As a compromise, they proposed reporting non-requested electronic editions as non-qualified circulation, but allow the publishers to report additional data regarding the non-requested electronic editions in the explanatory paragraph.  

The committee also suggested a working group of media buyers, publishers, audience development managers and digital magazine enablers (DMEs) be formed to begin examining the future of reporting digital magazines. The group will be facilitated by Media Ideas as a consultant to BPA on this matter.

The US Audience Development Committee (ADAC)-Consumer unanimously recommended a reaffirmation of current rules stating electronic editions must be requested to be counted as qualified circulation; however, the committee also recommended allowing non-requested electronic editions as non-qualified circulation with reporting within the average non-qualified table.

The European Audience Development/Fulfillment Advisory Committee (EADAC), with the exception of four members who abstained, also agreed to reaffirm the current rules which do not allow non-requested or non-qualified electronic circulation to be reported on the statement. The EADAC felt that inclusion would damage the value of requested electronic copies as qualified circulation in the eyes of advertisers; at present, the value of electronic versions in buyers’ is fragile.

Other BPA committees will continue to weigh in with their views on the topic until the item goes before the corporate board on May 21st for a final vote. If the option to report non-requested electronic editions as non-qualified circulation is approved by the board, it will mark the first time such data will appear on the circulation statement.

What’s your opinion?

Please use the “Comment” link at the end of this entry to share your thoughts and ideas about this important item.

Non-requested digitized magazine copies as request: Two proposals to consider

Last month I asked for your comments to my February 2nd blog posting: Should BPA count as copies served those publishers’ e-mail alerts with a hyperlink to an electronic edition sent to individuals who did not request the magazine in its digital format? As expected, many of you expressed very strong feelings on the matter at hand—both for and against. 

Based upon feedback already received, we have crafted two possible compromise positions. Please consider both positions and provide your remarks in the "comments" link immediately below this entry. BPA will begin reviewing this item with our various committees and advisory boards around the globe beginning this week through May 21st when the matter will go before the corporate board for a final decision.

Compromise Position: ONE
Should BPA count all e-mail alerts containing a hyperlink (or actual pdf) to an electronic edition sent to individuals who did not request the magazine in its digital format as “non qualified” copies served? Further, if the individual clicks on the link to view the electronic edition, should BPA consider such action as a request and, provided the individual conforms to the stated qualification criteria as outlined in the Field Served and Definition of Recipient Qualification, allow such an individual to be reported as qualified circulation (as a requested copy)?

The resulting action of clicking on the link should be a message from the publication informing the individual that future issues will be delivered in this manner unless they opt out of receiving via e-mail.

Compromise Position: Two
Notwithstanding Position: ONE, should BPA allow publishers to determine whether a printed or digitized version of a publication may be sent to qualified individuals who have requested the magazine? Accepting this proposition would empower the publisher to elicit a request for the brand but decide on an issue-by-issue basis whether the brand is sent in printed or electronic format. 

Please consider these two proposals and provide your comments. You will receive an e-mail from me when your comments have been posted.

BPA considering non-request electronic circulation as qualified

To say these are difficult economic times, is a vast understatement. In the media industry, publishers must consider new, low-cost options to extend their brand’s reach in an effort to capture the attention of as many marketers they can.
 
With low circulation and production/distribution costs, the use of non-request electronic (digital) circulation is becoming a very attractive option to this increasingly critical situation.
 
However, BPA’s current rules (which we are considering amending) prohibit the inclusion of non-request electronic circulation anywhere on the BPA statement. As a result, publishers with this type of circulation are unable to take advantage of this opportunity to grow their audience.  
 
Therefore, we would like you to consider the two positions below and add your comments below: 

1. Allow for the reporting of non-request electronic circulation as non-qualified in paragraph 9, additional data, only. This is similar to the reporting of non-qualified print copies, which many publishers do now to report trade show copies, rotated copies, or bonus copies.  
2. Allow the reporting of qualified electronic circulation for all qualified source channels, including Communication from recipient or recipient’s company (other than request), Association Rosters and Directories, Business Directories, Manufacturers, Distributors, and Wholesalers lists  and Other sources.

BPA is concerned that non-request electronic circulation could be considered spam and boost circulation levels unnaturally.  How does one safeguard against this? Some thoughts, should:

• BPA limit the amount of non-request electronic circulation to 5%, 10% or 15% of the total qualified?
• BPA allow only those e-mails that can be proven to have been delivered?
• BPA require a prominent opt out? 
• BPA require specific content in the e-mail’s subject line?
• BPA establish a requirement that those who do opt out are not counted at all (including the first copy served)?

Do you agree, provided data is fully disclosed, the value of this type of circulation should be left to the user of the statement to determine its value?
 
The above points, as well as your valuable feedback, will serve as an important step forward for BPA publisher, advertiser and agency members.

I urge you and your staff to consider and comment on these two options—and submit alternative ideas of your own—in the area below this post. To post your comments, scroll to the bottom of this blog entry and click on the “Comments” link. You will see a box in which to submit any ideas.

I look forward to reading your comments.

BPA Board of Directors vote on rule amendments at December meeting

We have summarized new rules changes passed by BPA’s Board of Directors at its semi-annual meeting held December 10, 2008. As always, I welcome your comments to any of these new rules or rule amendments. To post a comment, scroll to the end of the blog to the "Comments" section. Follow the prompts from there.

Unless otherwise specified, all changes are effective immediately.

The new rules and rule amendments may also be accessed through the “Rules” tool on the bpaww.com home page, or the direct link provided below:

BPA Rule Amendments/New Rules December 2008

Or, if you prefer, please contact your BPA Member Relations Manager, or any of our audit staff, if you have questions. MRM contacts can be found on the BPA website.

Board Actions Applying to Business Publications and Consumer Magazines:

Consolidation of request sources:  After one year, it is clear the telecommunication recording rule has its benefits. Credibility of the source has risen, as has the effectiveness and efficiency of the audit. As a result, the BPA Worldwide Board of Directors voted to collapse the reporting of written, telecommunication and electronic channels on Business (B) paragraph 3b and Consumer (C) paragraph 5 in circulation statements and audit reports to simply “request” and “communication” sources.

Publishers may continue to report each sub-category separately as an option.

Paid reporting updates: Paragraphs B5-8/C3a-3d on the BPA statement report total new and renewed qualified paid subscription orders/sold for the period. Current BPA rules require publishers to report these paragraphs if their average paid circulation exceeds 50%.

At its meeting, the BPA Board voted to simplify paid reporting requirements by eliminating paragraph B6/C3b, “length of subscriptions”, and paragraph B8/C3d, “how ordered”, noting that this information can be found elsewhere in the report. Paragraph B5/C3a, “prices” (which includes term), and paragraph B7/C3c, “use of free promotional incentive” are required to be reported for all publications with more than 50% average paid circulation, including membership benefit subscriptions.

Reporting electronic edition site license distribution: Electronic edition site license distribution is one electronic copy of a publication sent to an administrator at a subscribing company and posted on the company’s intranet for multiple-user access. BPA can verify terms of payment and delivery of one copy; however, there is no effective means to confirm viewing information by company employees. As a result, site license distribution is not considered qualified circulation. However, the Board did approve reporting electronic edition site license distribution so that it may appear in a separate paragraph on page one and separately throughout the balance of the BPA statements.

Consolidation of Membership Benefit sources: The Board continued its consolidation of paragraph B3b/C5 with the removal of the “individual” and “organizational” reporting channels within the Membership Benefit source. Board members noted little perceived value of separating the two categories with very few members reporting “membership benefit-organizational” circulation.

Discontinuance of separate reporting for two passive sources: The BPA Board also voted to further streamline paragraph B3b/C5 with the consolidation of “Independent Field Reports” and “Licensees” into the “Other” category within section V - “Sources other than above”; however, both remain bonafide sources that can be used.

Late mailing rules aligned: Current BPA rules allow publications and magazines with monthly frequencies to distribute up to the day before the next issue and not be considered “late distribution”. However, bi-monthly, semi-monthly and weekly frequencies were required to be distributed at least two days before the next issue. The Board, in an effort to create a late distribution rule consistent across all frequencies, amended the rule so all publications and magazines—regardless of frequency—may distribute up to the last day before the next issue.

Board Actions Applying to Consumer Magazines Only:

Multi-copy same addressee street rack distribution: The Board amended the rule addressing street rack distribution of multi-copy same addressee copies, whereby publishers may claim such circulation as qualified when a municipality does not govern rack placement.

However, in those cases where street racks are controlled by cities or municipalities, publishers must obtain prior approval in order to claim that circulation as qualified MCSA copies.

Again, please refer to the link for the Executive Summaries of Rules, or use the link provided at the top of this document, to access full rules amendment language and specifics.

Canadian Newspaper Advisory Board (CNAB) proposes newspaper rule changes

In September the Canadian Newspaper Advisory Board (CNAB) met to formalize advisory board positions, evaluate proposed rule and reporting changes, and advise CCAB on a new suite of web site traffic and electronic edition measurement tools. Below please find a summary of the discussions…

Proposed Rule Changes:

Educational Copies (formally Newspapers In Education): A new reporting category is proposed for copies served to classrooms, universities, and language programs. The category, “Educational” will be reported in the “Sponsored by third party or free” table. 

Promotional Incentives (premiums): A proposed change to the use of promotional incentives will now allow publishers to collect a minimum subscription payment greater than the full value of the promotional incentive. This change aligns the promotional incentive rule with the “paid at any price” definition of paid circulation. Currently, the incentive can not be greater than 50% of the subscription offer price.

Omission Days: The number of omission days, or write off days, is proposed to increase from 10 to 20, annually. It was determined that 10 write off days was not sufficient, especially for papers with significant single copy distribution. It is also proposed that the variance thresholds for determining omission be eliminated. The variance threshold is a legacy rule from when there were no omission day limitations. All omission days and the amount of papers distributed on these days are proposed to be reported on page one of the CCAB report, but will not be included in the calculation of the averages.

Arrears: CCAB rules allow publishers to report a limited number of non-paid credit or arrear subscriptions as paid for 90 days. The CCAB rules did not allow subscriptions sold for less than one year, and less than 50% of base rate, to be included in the allowance. Since most newspaper subscriptions are sold for terms less than one year it is recommended that CCAB eliminate the term and price ceilings.  

Sponsored/Third Party Circulation: The advisory board remanded a discussion about sponsored/third party circulation back to the Newspaper Audience Development committee. At issue is the classification of copies purchased by businesses for the benefit of customers, for example, a café which purchases three newspaper subscriptions for their patrons to enjoy reading a newspaper with their meals. CCAB rules for consumer magazine state subscription purchases of 10 copies or less may be reported as paid individual circulation; subscription purchases in lots of 11 or more must be reported as sponsored circulation. The advisory board requests the audience development committee review the consumer rule, report on the size and scope of this type of circulation for the average newspaper publisher, and make a recommendation for newspapers.

Reporting circulation by price points: CCAB currently reports copies by the following price points: sold at 50% of base price or greater; sold at less than 50% base price. The advisory board created a buyer/seller task force to examine how media buyers use the current price point data in the evaluation/buying process. As a result a recommendation is expected to either retain this reporting or eliminate it.  

Electronic Editions: Defining electronic editions and determining the report format for electronic editions will be discussed at the next advisory board meeting, November 25th. 

Following this meeting the recommendations of the advisory board will be presented to the BPA Worldwide Board of Directors for ratification at the December 10th meeting. 

Please take a moment to comment on the above recommendations so we may include your points of view in the decision process.

To post a comment, click on the “Comments” link at the end of this post. At the end of the comments, you will find a “Post your comments” section to add your own thoughts and ideas.

Business Statement Task Force holds second meeting

On August 28, 2008, the Business Statement Task Force held its second meeting. The group reviewed the latest comments from the BPA blog and reviewed mock statements based on suggestions from the previous meeting.

Paragraph 1, Average Qualified Circulation

Below please find two versions of paragraph 1, reporting electronic edition site license circulation/access.

Version A creates a new reporting category within paragraph 1 for site license circulation – counting each license user as a qualified copy.

   

Click on paragraph for an expanded view.

Version B reports site license access under a qualified circulation subtotal and totals to “Total Qualified Circulation/Access."

Click on paragraph for an expanded view.

Below is the proposed paragraph 11 explanatory comment for Electronic Site License circulation/access.

Click on paragraph for an expanded view.

Paragraph 3b, Qualification Source Breakout

The group continued the clean up effort on paragraph 3b. It was suggested membership benefit circulation does not need to be further broken out into “individual” and “organizational.” The task force members did not see the value is separating these two categories, and very few BPA members report “membership benefit organizational” circulation. See the example below.

The group suggested eliminating “Independent Field Reports, Licensees, and Manufacturers, Distributors, and Wholesalers lists” from section V - “Sources other than above.” The task force members did not see the value in reporting these categories separately, and recommended reporting the circulation as “other sources,” with the option to report further information about the source in a paragraph 11 explanatory comment. See the example below.

There was continued debate on reporting written, telecom, and electronic personal direct requests. The task force was split on continuing the breakout. As such, we have created two templates for your consideration.

Version A incorporates all the recommended changes above, and consolidates written, telecom, and electronic request into one “personal direct request” category.

Click on paragraph for an expanded view.

Version B incorporates all the recommendations above, but continues to report personal direct written, telecom, and electronic request separately.

Click on paragraph for an expanded view.

Advisory Committee Review

These suggestions, along with member comments on the blog, will be reviewed by BPA’s advisory committees around the world. The final recommendations will be shared with the BPA Board of Directors at the December 2008 meeting.

Please use the "Comment" button below to post your feedback and/or questions.

Address to ABM/FIPP World Conference: "A Passport to Transformation"

Here is a speech I gave Monday, September 8th at the B-toB World Conference of FIPP hosted by ABM to announce our new offering in the web measurement business.

Good afternoon.

As the program of this conference highlights, “passport to transformation”, these are challenging times for media owners, certainly BtoB, but all media. I believe inherent in every challenge lies opportunity. And so I appear before you today to announce how BPA has responded to challenging times and seized the opportunity. With an ever-increasing demand on time and resources, people are moving much faster thus requiring - even demanding - information at an increasingly feverish pace.

The obvious answer to this need for information, and speed at which to get it, is the Internet. This comes as no surprise but probably not since the industrial revolution and the invention of the automobile has the world seen a greater innovation to our modern world.

I am sure we all agree and accept that advertising spend has made a dramatic shift to the internet. Although the spending rate in the trade press did make a modest rebound after the dotcom bubble burst and the recession following the 9/11 attacks, the shift to internet advertising has remained strong and growing. While small increments of spend have crept back to the printed product, it is no where near levels it once enjoyed. As a result, the number of pages of trade magazines has diminished noticeably as has the number of new B2B magazine launches.

Currently the biggest concern for the trade press industry is the decline of advertising spending. The effect of this has caused a shrinking of circulations and reduced print runs. In addition to this there is concern over the move of business audiences from traditional trade magazines toward information gathering from alternative sources. Although many believe there will always be a need for printed trade magazines, the fact remains there are fewer launches and many other titles moving toward a web-based or “e” product. In today’s current marketplace, the advertising buyer is presented with more media choices while at the same time working within smaller and tighter budgets. As a result, audits and verification should be required to keep the emphasis on the needs of the advertiser. We recognize that BPA needs to increase its relevance in today’s multi-media environment.

Our history shows we have always been innovative. Twelve years ago we moved into the interactive market and the waters got very muddy with various vendors and confusing metrics. The market is evolving at a rapid pace and metrics change just as quickly. Ultimately (and unfortunately) the market has become comfortable with measurement whereby the website owner sets their own measurement parameters using software that is perceived to be third party independent when nothing could be further from the truth. Unfortunately thus far we have not seen the rally cry in the industry to require real third party auditors across the board.

As reported in the Internationalist, (Spring 2007) one ad agency executive has said of his trade, “…you were expected to document everything: audience delivery, reach, intra-media reach, frequency, reach at the effective frequency and much more. The rising importance of ‘new’ media made these metrics less relevant…But a substitute currency was never developed.”

He went on to say, “The erosion of traditional media metrics followed by not having a substitute model has created media plans with a lot of conjectures posing as facts and are often arbitrary.”
So said Marcelo Salup, Senior Vice President & Director of Marketing, GroupoUno

Well folks, I am here to tell you that it stops today!

It stops today!

In a shift toward total brand metrics away from single channel measurement, I am announcing that, in cooperation with Nielsen Online, BPA will bundle enhanced website traffic measurement with all print and trade show audits without increasing our existing dues and fees. Likewise our web only members can include print or events int e same bundled package. Our members have invested in BPA over the years and we are returning the favor in kind.

BPA members around the world will now have near real time online reporting of audited web activity included with circulation audit of print products and attendance at exhibitions or events.

We have been eager to create this added-value bundle for our members. Last year we made the decision to manage revenue and expenses of our not-for-profit organization to enable BPA to offer more services for the same existing rate.

Cost containment measures and pricing management have enabled us to return value to our members by including 24/7 web measurement for every member with no change in dues or fees. We saw the opportunity to give back to our members a truly value-added package to measure their entire brand. This ‘integrated pricing, integrated media’ approach is vital to our mission to lead the world in auditing media. And that mission only becomes truly validated when we can say ‘whatever the channel’.

Our new tag-enabled census tool, powered by Nielsen’s SiteCensus service, is being launched in beta test to our members already participating in our log file-based interactive audits, as well as those members with print audits who have volunteered to participate in the test.

The beta test is scheduled to run now through December with full roll-out to our membership in January 2009.

We chose to work with Nielsen because like BPA, Nielsen is a globally recognized brand in the media industry. It has cutting edge, patented web measurement and reporting systems in place, and an installed base of media buyer users.

The “BPA powered by Nielsen Online” solution offers a dashboard of website traffic metrics providing an industry standard that gives advertisers and media buyers an apples-to-apples comparison when making their marketing decisions. Clearly we are aware that there are a number of web analytics and measurement tools available to media owners. This new solution will create a level playing field with a single set of standards—provided on a constant basis—performed by one audited analytics tool—that advertisers and agencies can trust as accurate. A single, standard web measuring system across our membership eliminates any guesswork on why data is different amongst competitive sites.

We are making this move from our previous log file-based interactive audit to page-tagging because the latter gets data to market much faster and at significant savings. Our members will now be able to access website traffic information—including page impressions, unique browsers, users’ sessions, unique browser frequency, user session duration, page duration and an executive summary of the above—on an unlimited basis to retrieve nearly-real time data, 24 hours-a-day, seven days a week. The ability to select by market sector, country of origin of traffic, or specific site also exists.

Members can print or download website traffic information based on daily, weekly, monthly or historical reports, or forward the traffic data directly to sales staff or prospective advertisers. Although we will not produce individual reports for the online data, top-line web data can be integrated with a brand’s circulation or attendance audit. We will also work with Nielsen to collect qualitative survey data from website users for more robust measurement and demographics by site and market sector, which is the demand being made of BPA by advertisers. Media buyers want to know the quality of the user.

As part of our agreement with Nielsen Online, we will conduct a System Certification Audit on Nielsen’s SiteCensus tool on an annual basis to ensure it is properly collecting and reporting web traffic data. We will also continually audit each website to ensure correct tag placement and number of tags per page, as well as accurate filtering of spiders, robots and internal users from traffic counts.

This opportunity is truly a 'passport to transformation'.

--end--

Please submit your comments below.

Business Statement Task Force convenes first meeting

Thursday, August 14th, the Business Publication Circulation Statement Redesign Task Force had their first meeting. The task force consists of senior media buyers (advertisers and advertising agencies), audience development managers, and publishers: all experts in the business publishing field. Previous BPA advisory committee discussions and all blog comments were taken into account in our discussions.

Here are the highlights of the meeting…

Site Licensed Digital Magazines: How to count this for of distribution--as copies or based on access?

There was much discussion on site licenses for digitized magazines. These are magazines that are digitized with one copy sent to a firm for them to host typically on an intranet with limited access to a set number of users stipulated in the terms of a license contract for the location (site).

All agreed site licenses will grow in size and importance in the future, but few agreed on how to report this form of distribution on the BPA statement.

Some proposals:

• Add a new line in paragraph 1 for site licenses, and report separately throughout the statement.
• Report as “Multi-Copy Same Address” in paragraph 1, and report separately throughout the statement.
• Create a new section under paragraph 1 for site license copies/access.

Media buyers prefer that we find a way to validate access of the digital copies through the licensee’s company intranet firewall. The audience development managers expressed most companies will not provide any data on usage, but there was a suggestion that a publisher could monitor use by managing access to the digital copy, or by tracking through pixel beacons..

The task force advised BPA the site license solution must be able to accommodate both paid and controlled (non-paid) license arrangements. Staff will create mock statements, based on the above suggestions, for the task force to review at their next meeting. We will also post these to the blog for you to view and comment.

   *What are your thoughts on site licensing?
   *How should we count—by number of licensed users permitted or by actual access to the copy?
   *Should we include counts in the Total Qualified Circulation?
   *Should licensed circulation be reported separately?
   *Do you have site license circulation?
         o Are they free/paid?
         o What kind of end user data do you receive?

Next topic:
Paragraph 3b: The majority of the task force was in favor of retaining 1, 2, and 3 year reporting; however, they suggested BPA report this data in month ranges: 1-12 months; 13-24 months; 25-36 months.

The task force unanimously recommended collapsing the three subsets of request: written, telecommunications, and electronic, into one “request” category. One publisher stated the new telecommunication recording rule has improved the quality of telecom request to allow for a consolidation.

   *What are your thoughts on monthly age reporting?
   *What are your thoughts on collapsing the request category?

Next Topic:
Additions and Removals: The task force was in favor of retaining the reporting of additions and removals. All buyers expressed additions and removals provide important data/insight needed to evaluate publications. Several audience development managers agreed with the buyers, and two were indifferent. No one had a strong desire to remove the information from the BPA statement.

Opinions?

Next Topic:
Paragraph 3c: Media buyers felt it was important to continue reporting paragraph 3c. Several publishers expressed they use 3c in their sales efforts. Since most fulfillment systems are already capturing the mailing address data, the audience development managers were in favor of leaving 3c unchanged.

Opinions?

Next Topic:
Paragraphs 5-8: The audience development managers were in favor of optional reporting of paragraphs 5-8; the media buyer expressed these paragraphs provide important insight to paid circulation. The media buyers expressed they did not need paragraph 5, prices, because “average order price” is also reported in paragraph 10.

Opinions?

Next Topic:
Length of Subscriptions – Controlled Circulation: The task force discussed giving publishers the option of reporting a “Length of Subscription” table in paragraph 11. The table would report the number of subscriptions requested for 1, 2 and 3 year terms. Rather than requalifying each subscriber every year, an audience development manager suggested offering multiple year controlled subscriptions. The proposed table would allow the publisher to disclose these multiple year offers to media buyers. The task force was not opposed to this option.

Opinions?

The next meeting of the task force is scheduled for August 28th. Please share your comments with us beforehand so we can include your opinions in our discussions.