PRESS RELEASE: 34 TITLES LEAD INDUSTRY IN NEW DIGITAL RULES REPORTING

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Some of Australia’s leading magazine titles have joined the growing list of publications to report sales of their digital media offerings, the Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC) announced today.

Today marks the second data release following historic changes to the ABC’s reporting rules in March 2012, which introduced new metrics for the reporting of sales of digital versions of newspapers and magazines and stand-alone digital publications.

Among the 34 newspapers, newspaper inserted magazines (NIMs) and magazines to have reported sales for the period-ended June 2012 are leading titles from ACP Magazines, NewsLifeMedia and Odysseus Publishing, including Australian Women’s Weekly, Australian Men’s Fitness, Donna Hay and Australian Gourmet Traveller.

This period is the first to include reporting of digital sales across the full magazine category – weekly magazines were able to report at the end of March – and also the first to see reporting of digital enhanced versions of magazines.

A total of 15 magazines have reported digital sales this period, alongside a list of publications that includes five regional daily newspapers, eight country press newspapers and metropolitan newspapers, including the Sydney Morning Herald, Sun-Herald, The Age and Sunday Age.

ABC chief executive Paul Dovas congratulated the early adopters and encouraged other publications to follow their lead.

“We’ve already seen the number of publications reporting their digital sales under the new rules jump from nine for the first reporting period to as many as 34 today. We’re looking forward to seeing more titles on board by the next period, as publishers adjust their systems and recognise the value of this more granular sales data,” said Dovas.

“The reporting of digital sales by the ABC has meant publishers can provide advertisers with greater insight into readers’ interaction with our brands. New metrics such as Total Masthead Sales are important elements of Fairfax Media's multi-platform strategy,” said Tom Gerstmyer, director of circulation & newspaper sales at Fairfax Media’s metropolitan media business.

Endorsed in March, the new reporting metrics provide media buyers with insights into the sales of digital versions of print publications and standalone digital publications, including separate reporting for replica digital versions, enhanced digital versions (tablets) and subscribers to paid website versions.

The new rules also include a world-first, de-duplicated Average Total Paid Masthead Sales metric which includes paid websites, providing insight into print only sales, digital only sales and packaged print and digital subscription sales.

“Australia’s media industry is leading the way forward with these metrics, recognising the emergence of digital publishing and in particular the changing nature of how masthead-branded content is consumed across both print and digital media platforms,” said Dovas.

The ABC’s new rules were introduced following a wide-ranging review undertaken by a sub-committee of magazine, newspaper, advertiser and media buyer representatives, including members from the Media Federation of Australia (MFA), the Australian Association of National Advertisers (AANA), and magazine and newspaper publishers.

For more information and supporting materials on the ABC’s new reporting rules visit www.auditbureau.org.au

ABOUT ABC
The Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC) is a not-for-profit industry organisation, which provides advertisers, marketers and media buyers with verified circulation data across a range of media formats. Further information: www.auditbureau.org.au

Media Contact:
Avviso PR
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Paul Fahy
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Date: 10 Aug 2012