Issues to be included / excluded - Business Magazines

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Issues to be included / excluded

All published issues for which the majority of the distribution took place within the Reporting Period must be included except for any issues allowed to be excluded according to this section.

Principles

1. All issues published in the Reporting Period must be included

2. Published issues that are allowed to be excluded according to this section may be removed from the average circulation figure

3. Issues allowed to be excluded from the average circulation figure will be reported

Requirements 

1. All issues published in the Reporting Period must be included

1. Whether an issue is included in the Reporting Period is determined by the date by which 50% of the claimed distribution is distributed/made available. For each component of distribution the date distributed/made available is determined as follows:

   1. Mailed copies: The date the copies enter the distribution chain, i.e. when they are posted or delivered to a courier.

   2. Paid copies: The first date the copies are made available to the consumer, i.e. for retail sales the first official on sale date.

   3. Copies made available for pick up by consumer: The date the copies are made available/handed out to the consumer.

   4. Free Digital Edition copies: The date email notifications are sent. 

2. Published issues that are allowed to be excluded according to this section may be removed from the average circulation figure  

1. There are certain circumstances under which you may exclude an issue from the reported circulation. The circumstances and information surrounding any exclusion are subject to audit.

2. ABC granted exclusion:  You may exclude an issue for which we have issued an exclusion note. You can apply for an ABC granted exclusion if:

   1. Due to circumstances outside your control the achieved auditable distribution of an issue is less than planned, resulting in a reduction in the publication’s average circulation greater than 0.5%.

   2. You submit your application to us before you submit your circulation Return, including details of the issue concerned, its distribution date, the planned and achieved distribution and the reason for the shortfall.

   3. If we do not issue an exclusion note we will issue a rejection notice detailing the reason for rejection. To obtain an exclusion note request form please email us via .
      
      Guidance available (digital copies)
      

3. Issues allowed to be excluded from the average circulation figure will be reported

1. Any issues excluded from the reported circulation will be reported on the Certificate.

Reporting

You will report the following which will be reported on the ABC Certificate:

1. Number of issues included in the circulation claim.

   1. If the number of print issues differs from the number of digital issues published during the reporting period, for example where an issue is published in digital format only, you must include an additional table showing:

      1. The number of issues published in each format; and

      2.  The average circulation for each format.
         
         Illustration:
         

         	Combined	Print	Digital
         Issues in period	12	11	12
         Average circulation by format	15,167	10,000	6,000

         
         Note:

         - The additional table will only appear where the number of print and digital issues in the period differs.

         - The ‘Combined’ column will correspond to the certificate’s headline circulation and total number of issues

2. Details of any issues excluded from the circulation claim, including for each:

   1. The general reason for exclusion.

   2. The total net circulation.

Guidance

G2. Published issues that are allowed to be excluded according to this section may be removed from the average circulation figure.

Digital Copies

Each case will be assessed on its individual merits. However, the following scenarios are intended to illustrate circumstances that may give rise to an exclusion application relating to digital copies:

• Platform or system outage: A technical or service failure affecting the primary hosting, distribution, or subscription platform, resulting in the issue being unavailable to users for a substantial period of its normal on sale or availability period.

• Access error or file corruption: The issue is published but is inaccessible or unreadable due to file corruption, faulty links or errors in digital delivery.

• Reporting failure: A failure in reporting processes that results in the loss or corruption of data integral to the claim. For example, users may be able to access the product as normal, but an analytics outage or other technical failure prevents circulation or engagement from being accurately recorded.

Circumstances Not Ordinarily Eligible

Exclusions would not ordinarily be considered where changes in circulation or traffic arise from general actions taken by third parties, such as search engines or social media platforms, in the normal course of business.

This includes changes to:

• Algorithms

• Referral methods

• Product presentation or ranking systems

• Business models or platform features

Such developments are considered part of the normal operating environment.