The industry-controlled Audit Bureau of Circulations discloses newspaper circulation for the six months ended March 31 in a statement expected by 9 a.m. ET on its website.
As blogger Jim Romenesko noted last week, the so-called FAS-FAX report reflects new changes in how circulation is counted, according to an ABC statement that says:
"In FAS-FAX reports prior to March 2011, the top-line metric that was commonly reported was 'Total Paid Circulation.' This category no longer exists on ABC reports. The new top-line number is 'Total Average Circulation,' which consists of a publication’s paid and verified print and digital editions. Total average circulation also includes any paid and verified branded editions."
Bottom line: Without restated figures for prior periods, I don't see how we can accurately gauge any circulation figures from today's reports.
As blogger Jim Romenesko noted last week, the so-called FAS-FAX report reflects new changes in how circulation is counted, according to an ABC statement that says:
"In FAS-FAX reports prior to March 2011, the top-line metric that was commonly reported was 'Total Paid Circulation.' This category no longer exists on ABC reports. The new top-line number is 'Total Average Circulation,' which consists of a publication’s paid and verified print and digital editions. Total average circulation also includes any paid and verified branded editions."
Bottom line: Without restated figures for prior periods, I don't see how we can accurately gauge any circulation figures from today's reports.
ABC's shifting standards over the past four years are an indication of how desperate the industry has become for a good story. The fact that non-publisher members of the ABC board have gone along with the plan shows just how little they care about circulation figures any more. Magazines? Sure, circ is important there, because publishers guarantee a rate base. But for newspapers, the only distribution number that advertisers need to know is how many preprints to deliver for insertion.
ReplyDeleteSmaller-market publishers still sell with circ, but that's because their advertisers usually don't know any better.
The thing to note about these statistics is that the more the industry has sought to muddy the surveys and fix the figures, the clearer it has become that newspapers are in truly dire straits.
ReplyDeleteThe thing to note about these statistics is that the more the industry has sought to muddy the surveys and fix the figures, the clearer it has become that newspapers are in truly dire straits.
ReplyDelete5/03/2011 8:45 AM
You are exactly right... Basically anything with the newspapers name on it now counts in circulation.
ABC's "new" method of reporting will now assure everyone that the numbers are indeed fixed because they can say whatever they want about digital. To that end, I fully expect to magically see numbers up for most Gannett papers. Big surprise!
ReplyDeleteAlso the new way of saying "circulation" is not saying circulation but readership....which is always a BS number. When I worked at the Arizona Republic and circulation was diving (and still is) we were very specifically never ever to talk about circulation to advertisers (because that would be painting a bad picture - even though it was the truth) but to talk about readership and then they started including everything frickin thing that the Arizona Republic was involved in and "readership" was in the millions. It was so crazy that fluffing the numbers way up like that made it look even more unbelievable and disingenuous that the advertisers were now completely laughing at us. One customer who I went to see (who of course had a website) made the comment that he had a over 100,000 page views on his website in one month but admitted that he didn't count them as customers because he didn't have 100,000 individual sales, but said to me I might as well since you all seem to count everything too. It was embarrassing to go on sales calls and spout our made up numbers and I stopped doing it after a very short while.
ReplyDeleteThe ABC rules have shifted to favor this or that as far back as I can remember and that's been a long time. But in case you haven't noticed, much of newspaper readership these days is shifting to online, rather than print. So to the dinosaurs here that think print is king are fools. Take the word paper out of newspaper and the numbers reflect wherever people get their news from one source. You can measure hits by the way to the ignorant person who said they'll make them up.
ReplyDeleteThe ABC rules have shifted to favor this or that as far back as I can remember and that's been a long time. But in case you haven't noticed, much of newspaper readership these days is shifting to online, rather than print. So to the dinosaurs here that think print is king are fools. Take the word paper out of newspaper and the numbers reflect wherever people get their news from one source. You can measure hits by the way to the ignorant person who said they'll make them up.
ReplyDelete5/03/2011 12:34 PM
Nobody said they were making the hit or page views up......but we were told to sell our print product at the Arizona Republic based on readership which which included online..that is how the "readership" was in the millions and we were told to never disclose to separate print from online readership. That is where the smoke and mirrors come in...there was one big readership number no matter what you were selling even if the product have very limited readership, because it was associated with "Republic Media" then the readership was in the millions no matter what. Some products didn't even have an online presence but we were to tell the advertiser that the readership was in the millions.
Wow. You all are for sure haters. Take another bitter pill and go back to your break rooms.
ReplyDeleteABC has long been conservative and almost an anchor in reporting only part of the picture. This new reporting allows publishers to give an more accurate picture of audience and the ability to be more transparent with advertisers -- who as a reminder pay for your sorry salaries and buy-outs.
No, I am not an ABC troll or a management troll -- okay, maybe the latter but still.
Is anyone else surprised that in a company where the core is investigation that so few actually know and understand how the industry works?
I suppose no one is impressed with Detroit's Sunday ranking?! Wasn't here not too long ago there was speculation that the place was going to close? Make fun their distribution model, poke fun at their recent Idea Contest, but don't overlook they are the biggest print property in the company behind USAT.
Ciao Haters!
Wow. You all are for sure haters. Take another bitter pill and go back to your break rooms.
ReplyDeleteABC has long been conservative and almost an anchor in reporting only part of the picture. This new reporting allows publishers to give an more accurate picture of audience and the ability to be more transparent with advertisers -- who as a reminder pay for your sorry salaries and buy-outs.
No, I am not an ABC troll or a management troll -- okay, maybe the latter but still.
Is anyone else surprised that in a company where the core is investigation that so few actually know and understand how the industry works?
I suppose no one is impressed with Detroit's Sunday ranking?! Wasn't here not too long ago there was speculation that the place was going to close? Make fun their distribution model, poke fun at their recent Idea Contest, but don't overlook they are the biggest print property in the company behind USAT.
Ciao Haters!
5/03/2011 2:40 PM
Talk about getting your facts straight...
1) ABC has always been about looking out for themselves and has always over inflated and adjusted counts to look better than they are in reality.
2) The Arizona Republic is the biggest print and online property outside of USA Today and revenue generator as well, that is why corporate pretty much left it alone for many years and while Dickey is so protective of it because Zidich and him are tight buds.
You seem like yet another person... that knows just a little a bit and think what is local is company wide.
ABC figures fixed? Why should I believe that. I certainly believe that the San Jose Mercury News has vaulted to become the 5th largest newspaper in the country, and has a greater circulation than the Washington Post. Truly a marvel. Along with thousands of other Californians, I bet Jim scrambles every morning to get that paper and read its breakthrough coverage.
ReplyDeleteABC figures fixed? Why should I believe that. I certainly believe that the San Jose Mercury News has vaulted to become the 5th largest newspaper in the country, and has a greater circulation than the Washington Post. Truly a marvel. Along with thousands of other Californians, I bet Jim scrambles every morning to get that paper and read its breakthrough coverage.
ReplyDelete5/03/2011 7:02 PM
LMAO!!!!
Most of you have no idea how ABC represents advertisers as well as publishers, what the new rules say and why they were adopted. Go do your homework!
ReplyDeletehttp://www.accessabc.com/bylaws/bylaw2423.htm
San Jose as the 5th largest paper doesn't pass the laugh test. If that is one conclusion of this survey, it shows deep issues with how the ABC does is work. Yes, I see the ABC bylaws. But I also see San Jose and if I was involved in advertising, I would throw out this survey and come up with some other measurement.
ReplyDeleteSan Jose gets to count all the Singleton-owned Bay Area papers as "branded editions." You should go read Rick Edmonds' explanation of the new rules on the Poynter website.
ReplyDeleteI haven't studied it carefully, but I read Edmonds' blog post and it seemed to indicate that while there is no perfect way to count, the new circ rules are making an honest effort to cope with the many changes in newspaper readership.
Here's one thing to note about the Detroit Free Press' Sunday circulation:
ReplyDeleteFrom the Detroit News' story today: The Detroit Free Press Sunday edition is the sixth largest in the country with an average circulation of 614,226. Y.E.S., a Free Press shopping edition that was not included under the old ABC rules, accounted for 133,883 of overall Sunday circulation.
So that means the Free Press really sells about 480,000 papers Sunday, which is WAY off (about 180,000 copies) what the combined Sunday paper sold only about five years ago.