Canadian publishers downgrade audit
Three major Canadian newspaper groups: Torstar, Sun Media and Transcontinental have left the Canadian Audit Bureau of Circulations ABC circulation auditing to join the Canadian Circulations Audit Board (CCAB).
The publishers said they made the move so all their titles were audited by one auditor, because CCAB is tracking also the smaller community papers from the same publishers. The real reason, however, might be that CCAB has less strict rules on bulk and unpaid circulation.
The three publishers were unhappy with ABC because of the strict rules on promotional copies, and sponsored circulation that was handed out at public events such as auto shows. Metro (partly owned by Torstar and Transcontinental) was already audited by CCAB. Sun Media also owns the 24 heures/24 hours free dailies in six markets.
Media buyer Troutbeck-Chernoff president Robert Troutbeck said he will recommend his clients boycott advertising in the papers who don’t use ABC, calling it the gold standard for tabulating newspaper circulation in North America. “This is really an attempt to pass off dubious-quality distribution as paid circulation. … You can guarantee the numbers will go up,” according the Globe and Mail.
CanWest and Globe and Mail will stick with ABC but are watching developments with interest.
April 17th, 2008 at 7:22 pm
[...] news from NYT Co. (down) and Media General (way down). Meanwhile, three big Canadian publishers have changed circulation auditors for consistency, they say. Other suggest it’s because the new guys have looser definitions [...]
April 25th, 2008 at 10:26 pm
CCAB RESPONDS TO INACCURATE CLAIMS OF ‘LESS RIGOROUS’ AUDIT
Statements issued by the Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC) included comments made by spokespeople who were represented as independent, concerned media buyers and advertisers. What was not disclosed was that these individuals are directors or past directors of ABC, the major competitor of CCAB (a division of BPA World Wide). As such their comments are not without bias, nor are they representative of the industry in general. Furthermore, the statements made regarding the quality of a CCAB audit are false and unsubstantiated. CCAB’s audits are conducted according to the highest industry-accepted circulation auditing guidelines and will adhere to its universal principles of accuracy and full disclosure. Of greatest concern is that these statements are not constructive nor are they in the interests of anyone in the media industry. Read CCAB’s side at
http://www.bpaww.com/about_bpa/industry_news/Open%20Letter%20to%20media%20auditing%20stakeholders.html
April 26th, 2008 at 12:40 am
Please note that I (Jack Wojcicki) am PR Counsel with motum b2b, AOR for CCAB.