Product Engineering Solutions

Business Magazines (MIT Publishing Ltd)

Published date: 01 August 2023

Complaint:
Media pack incorrectly uses ABC Logo to support other unverified statistics and displays incorrect print quantity.

Complainant: Western Business Media Ltd

Outcome:

Upheld. ABC has certified print circulation only, and the other non-ABC data published in the media pack, including circulation breakdowns, electronic edition, e-blasts, editor’s e-newsletter and monthly website users was presented in a manner that inaccurately associated them with ABC.

MIT Publishing explained that the print circulation quoted comprised the average of the issue circulations during the calendar year up to the point the media pack was prepared. Whilst this has a reasonable logic, the figure quoted was not the not the latest ABC certified circulation as might be implied by the accompanying ABC Logo and ABC references. It was also noted the term ‘readers’ should not be used in relation to ABC certified circulations.

The publisher has updated the media pack to appropriately identify non-ABC data by sourcing these as publisher statements and to include the latest ABC certified circulation and period.