About the CAB

Since 1957, the CAB has been providing advertisers, marketers and media buyers with verified distribution data, delivering credibility to the media industry. Members interested in the data include advertisers, advertising agencies, research companies, stockbrokers and leading financial institutions.

 

Audits are conducted for Business, Professional & Specialty publications, Community & Community Language newspapers, Exhibition Organisers, E-Mail Distribution publishers, provider of Unaddressed Distribution and Web Site publisher members.

As a not-for-profit industry organisation, the CAB is governed by a Board of Directors elected from the membership on an annual basis. Board positions are honorary and represent the tripartite nature of membership with 4 Advertisers, 4 Agencies, 4 Publishers and 1 Exhibition Representative directing the business of the CAB.

The CAB works closely with the industry to provide services relevant to members needs while providing the integrity of third party verification of data.

 

What is a CAB audit?

CAB provides audit services for a range of media formats. This includes the Print Distribution Audit for the publishers of business, professional and specialty publications, community language publications and newspapers and community newspaper publishers.

 

The CAB also provides an Exhibition Audit, Email Newsletter Audit, Unaddressed Distribution Audit and Web Site Traffic Audit.

CAB’s services have been developed with industry participation and involvement.

A CAB print distribution audit verifies the average net distribution per issue of a publication in a defined audit period. Every copy within the defined six or twelve month period is verified to produce the Average Net Distribution of an issue. This highlights the printing and method of distribution, number of issues and the publishing frequency of each publication.

There are two audit periods, April to September, and October to March.

 

History

In 1957, the Australian Association of National Advertisers created the CAB, working with agencies and publishers. This was designed to provide a forum for business, trade and technical publications to establish the credibility of audited distribution. Since then the CAB has expanded to include many other media, including community newspapers, exhibitions and web and email publishers.

 

The CAB is a non-profit industry organisation governed by a tripartite membership comprising advertisers, advertising agencies and publishers. Working in harmony with its sister body the ABC, the CAB operates autonomously and is vigorous in expanding the services to the industry.

 

Objectives

The CAB seeks to provide a forum for publications, advertisers and advertising agencies to meet on level ground, acting as an independent third party. The CAB serves members by upholding these basic principles:

 

• To verify data through audit
• To issue standardised distribution data
• To disseminate data to member companies

> The CAB Board of Directors

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ABA Launches Mobile Website to Help Protect Advertiser Dollars

The Audit Bureaux of Australia (ABA) has launched an innovative online tool that allows advertisers, media buyers and business owners to quickly check a publication’s audited circulation data, to help advertisers make safe and informed decisions when purchasing media ads.

Newspapers Embrace New Rules For Reporting Day-of-Week Sales

11 November 2011 -The Australian, the Daily Telegraph and the Herald Sun together with APN News & Media’s entire stable of regional daily newspapers are among the major newspapers that have begun voluntarily reporting their average sales numbers for each day of the week, the Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC) announced today.

CAB Elects Advertising Agency Representive To Lead New Board

7 October 2011 -The Circulations Audit Board (CAB) highlighted the importance of the protection of advertisers and media buyers with the return of an advertising agency representative as President at the CAB’s annual general meeting held in Sydney on Thursday October 6, 2011.

CAB Calls on Advertisers to ‘Count On Us’ in new Advertising Campaign

5 August 2011 - The Circulations Audit Board has launched its biggest-ever awareness campaign to promote the importance of audited media with the support of CAB members through the roll out of ads across over 800 CAB audited print publications in September.

CAB Conference Here to Stay

28 July 2011 - The Circulations Audit Board’s inaugural Accountability in Ad Spend conference brought together its community of media buyers, print and digital publishers to discuss sex, auditing and macarons with roaring success this month.

Australian Businesses Losing Millions Through Media Scams

11 July 2011 - Australian businesses are losing more than $29 million annually as a result of media scams, with small and medium businesses bearing the brunt of the losses. The Circulations Audit Board (CAB), who is hosting the upcoming Accountability in Ad Spend conference on 21 July, has identified the millions lost each month.

ABC Launches Landmark New Rules to Increase Transparency and Accuracy of Print Sales Data

1 July 2011 - The Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC) has today launched significant new rules for the auditing and reporting of sales data for print publications, encompassing changes to deliver day-of-week reporting for newspapers, voluntary reporting for all publications and updates to the auditing and reporting of sales categories.

CAB Launches Major Review of Exhibition Auditing

27 June 2011 - The Circulations Audit Board (CAB) has launched the first major review of its exhibition audit rules and guidelines in more than six years, forming a committee of industry leaders to review the existing rules and bring them in line with current market needs.