Below please find a new rule amendment for Business Publications passed by the Board of Directors at their December 2016 meeting.
The Rule Amendment may be accessed through the “Rules & Bylaws” link on our home page. If you prefer, please contact your regional BPA representative, or any of our audit staff, with any questions.
Board Actions Applying to Business Publications - Global
Optional Analyzed Issues (Effective Immediately) – All media members may now choose which issue they want to analyze for the reporting period. Once a publisher chooses the analyzed issue, however, it may not be changed for thirty-six months.
Publishing Basic Rate Online (Effective immediately) – Publishers now have the option to post their base rate prices in the masthead of the printed publication or online.
Digital Edition Alerts for Print/Digital (Effective immediately) – BPA rules require subscribers receive an alert from the publisher when their digital issue is available for download or viewing. The Board clarified the current rule to require a digital alert (email or mobile push notifications) be sent to the subscriber. Publications with a daily frequency do not require a digital alert.
Web Traffic Reporting (Effective with the June 2017 reporting period) – The Board amended BPA’s web traffic reporting metrics to bring them in line with those BPA receives from Google and Omniture API’s – the primary sources of BPA member web traffic data. The following updates have been made to BPA’s reported web traffic metrics:
* Page Impressions will change to Page Views
* Unique Browsers will change to Users
* User Sessions will change to Sessions
* Average session duration reporting is mandatory
* Average Page Duration and Unique Browser Frequency have been removed
The updated metrics will not take effect until the June 2017 reporting period to allow BPA programming changes.
Paragraph 3a, Business/Industry reporting (Effective with the December 2017 reporting period) – “Others allied to the field,” “other titled and non-titled personnel,” and “Other Functions” shall be reported separately.
New media owner members may elect to defer reporting these recipients separately on their initial audit report, but must report separately on their second audit.
The rule will become effective with BPA’s December 2017 reports to allow member publishers time to prepare for the change.
Reporting Copies Through Third-Party Digital Distribution Services – Third-party digital magazine distribution companies provide access to digital magazines, publications and newspapers for a fixed fee.
Copies accessed or downloaded using these services shall be reported as “multi-title digital subscriptions.” Only unique recipients/users may be reported for each issue, multiple accesses or downloads of an issue by the same user shall be reported as one circulation unit.
Board Actions Applying to Consumer Magazines - Global
Publishing Basic Rate Online (Effective immediately) – Publishers now have the option to post their base rate prices in the masthead of the printed publication or online.
Digital Edition Alerts for Print/Digital (Effective immediately) – BPA rules require subscribers receive an alert from the publisher when their digital issue is available for download or viewing. The Board clarified the current rule to require a digital alert (email or mobile push notifications) be sent to the subscriber. Publications with a daily frequency do not require a digital alert.
Web Traffic Reporting (Effective with the June 2017 reporting period) – The Board amended BPA’s web traffic reporting metrics to bring them in line with those BPA receives from Google and Omniture API’s – the primary sources of BPA member web traffic data. The following updates have been made to BPA’s reported web traffic metrics:
* Page Impressions will change to Pageviews
* Unique Browsers will change to Users
* User Sessions will change to Sessions
* Average session duration is mandatory
* Average Page Duration and Unique Browser Frequency have been removed
The updated metrics will not take effect until the June 2017 reporting period to allow BPA programming changes.
Reporting Copies Through Third-Party Digital Distribution Services – Third-party digital magazine distribution companies provide access to digital magazines, publications and newspapers for a fixed fee.
Copies accessed or downloaded using these services shall be reported as “multi-title digital subscriptions.” Only unique recipients/users may be reported for each issue, multiple accesses or downloads of an issue by the same user shall be reported as one circulation unit.
Board Actions Applying to Canadian Community Newspapers
Optional Brand Statement (Effective immediately) – Community newspaper members are required to file quarterly TRAC data with CCAB. However, annual Brand Reports, for the 12-month period ending March 31, are now optional. Members may release annual or semi-annual Brand Reports at their option.
Web Traffic Reporting (Effective with the June 2017 reporting period) – The Board amended BPA’s web traffic reporting metrics to bring them in line with those BPA receives from Google and Omniture API’s – the primary sources of BPA member web traffic data. The following updates have been made to BPA’s reported web traffic metrics:
* Page Impressions will change to Page Views
* Unique Browsers will change to Users
* User Sessions will change to Sessions
* Average session duration reporting is mandatory
* Average Page Duration and Unique Browser Frequency have been removed
The updated metrics will not take effect until the June 2017 reporting period to allow BPA programming changes.