Issues to be included / excluded - Regional Publications

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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 average circulation. The circumstances and information surrounding any exclusion are subject to audit.

2. Daily Publications (Paid Single Copies & Paid Subscription Copies are 75% or more of the total average circulation of previous 4 issues)  You may exclude an issue if:

   1. Due to circumstances outside your control:

      • The distribution of an issue fails to achieve the planned level of distribution resulting in a shortfall in the Normal Net Sale* greater than 5%.

      • The planned level of distribution is achieved but is severely delayed or withdrawn prematurely from sale resulting in a shortfall in the Normal Net Sale* greater than 5%.
        
        Guidance available (digital copies)

   2. You can demonstrate there is a shortfall in the Normal Net Sale* greater than 5% because of the occurrence of a local public holiday, that is evidenced either:

      • By publication on an official local authority website; or

      • By virtue of a long-standing custom/tradition previously recognised by ABC.

3. Daily Publications (Paid Single Copies & Paid Subscription Copies are less than 75% of the total average circulation of previous 4 issues)  You may exclude an issue if:

   1. Due to circumstances outside your control:

      • The distribution of an issue fails to achieve the planned level of distribution and that shortfall is greater than 10% of the planned distribution.

      • The planned level of distribution is achieved but is severely delayed or withdrawn prematurely resulting in a shortfall that is greater than 10% of the average of the previous 4 issues’ total average circulations.
        
        Guidance available (digital copies)

4. Daily Publications (all) – Optional exclusion:  You may optionally exclude the following issues without the need to demonstrate a shortfall in circulation:

   1. Any issue published on an Official National Public Holiday (England, Scotland, NI, Wales or ROI as appropriate).

   2. Note: As Good Friday is not an official public holiday in the Republic of Ireland you cannot use this rule to exclude an affected issue from your circulation claim. However you may exclude the issue of a weekly publication published in the week containing Good Friday, as long as its net sale is lower than its normal net sale by 5% or more.

   3. Issues published during the Christmas/New Year trading period, which is defined as from Christmas Eve to the second official working day after 1^st January (inclusive). Note: 

      • If the fall of days renders these dates inappropriate ABC reserves the right to amend the dates for any particular year.

5. Weekly Publications or less frequent (Paid Single Copies & Paid Subscription Copies are 75% or more of the total average circulation of previous 4 issues)  You may exclude an issue if:

   1. Due to circumstances outside your control:

      • The distribution of an issue fails to achieve the planned level of distribution resulting in a shortfall in the Normal Net Sale* greater than 5%.

      • The planned level of distribution is achieved but is severely delayed or withdrawn prematurely from sale resulting in a shortfall in the Normal Net Sale* greater than 5%.
        
        Guidance available (digital copies)

   2. You can demonstrate there is a shortfall in the Normal Net Sale* greater than 5% because of the occurrence of a local public holiday, that is evidenced either:

      • By publication on an official local authority website; or

      • By virtue of a long-standing custom/tradition previously recognised by ABC.

   3. You can demonstrate there is a shortfall in the Normal Net Sale* greater than 5% because of the occurrence of an official National Public Holiday (England, Scotland, NI, Wales or ROI as appropriate). Note: Does not apply to Easter holidays or Christmas/New Year trading period - see section 2(g) below.

6. Weekly Publications or less frequent (Paid Single Copies & Paid Subscription Copies are less than 75% of the total average circulation of previous 4 issues) You may exclude an issue if:

   1. Due to circumstances outside your control:

      • The distribution of an issue fails to achieve the planned level of distribution and that shortfall is greater than 10% of the planned distribution.

      • The planned level of distribution is achieved but is severely delayed or withdrawn prematurely resulting in a shortfall that is greater than 10% of the average of the previous 4 issues’ total average circulations.
        
        Guidance available (digital copies)

7. Weekly Publications (all) – Optional exclusion:  You may optionally exclude the following issues without the need to demonstrate in shortfall in circulation:

   1. An issue published on Easter Sunday

   2. In England, Northern Ireland or Wales either the issue published in the week containing Good Friday or the issue published in the week containing Easter Monday

   3. In Scotland the issue published in the week containing Good Friday.

   4. In ROI the issue published in the week containing Easter Monday.

   5. Any two of the three issues published in the three week period ending on the first Sunday after New Year’s Day.

   6. Note: As Good Friday is not an official public holiday in the Republic of Ireland you cannot use this rule to exclude an affected issue from your circulation claim. However you may exclude the issue of a weekly publication published in the week containing Good Friday, as long as its net sale is lower than its normal net sale by 5% or more.

8. *Normal Net Sale: The Normal Net Sale used in the above calculations must:

   1. Be the average normal net sale of the previous four equivalent issues (e.g. for a Monday compare to Mondays etc). Note:

      • If one or more of the last four issues are excluded because of an official National Public Holiday or Christmas/New year trading period exclusions then do not use this as one of the four comparable issue but go back one further issue.

      • If one or more of the last four issues are excluded because of an Exclusion for reasons outside of your control then it will be counted as one of the four comparable issues.

      • Only include Paid Single Copes & Paid Subscription 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

1. Number of issues included in the average circulation for the period.

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.