Small magazine publications to forgo ABC audits

Posted by Savita Sauvin on February 23, 2010 at 8:07 AM

With drops in national ad spending, many magazine publishers have chosen to drop their memberships from the Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC), or instead prefer to be audited by other firms or skip the process completely, MediaWeek reported.

ABC, considered to be a standard body for media audits, lost about 100 magazine publications in the last couple of years, of which some titles have folded. However, many 75,000 circulation and smaller titles have chosen less expensive audit firms or have completely forgone the process. The most common reason for this drop was the cost of an ABC audit, which includes related services and can reach US$10,000 a year for a small title.

Because of the cost, there is limited payoff for titles that get little national advertising, according to MediaWeek. Some magazine titles that are no longer audited by ABC include, the Chicago Reader, D Magazine, Scientific American Mind and Utne Reader.

Bryan Welch, publisher and editorial director of Ogden Publications, who ended the Utne's long-time membership with ABC, told MediaWeek in that the ABC audit proves expensive for smaller titles and the only publications that "benefit from the audit are those who get a significant amount of attention from major advertising agencies."

Michael Lavery, president and managing director of ABC told MediaWeek that ABC is aware of its members' cost pressures. He pointed out that the firm hasn't raised prices on audits in more than four years. In response to the criticism on auditing process, he added, "It is a very thorough audit. Audits by their nature should be."

As smaller publications continue to leave, ABC could be forced to lower pricing, Mike McHale, founder and chief media officer of Cleverworks, told Media Buyer Planner.