With pre-orders for the iPad off to a fast start in preparation for the Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) product’s release next month, the Audit Bureau of Circulations has modified its guidelines for counting sales of a digital magazine in the U.S. and Canada. The old standards have always required that in order to be considered as part of a periodical’s circ, the e-paper version must include an exact replica of a print edition’s full editorial content and advertising. The change is that an e-paper edition no longer needs to be presented in a layout identical to the print version. Replica digital editions will continue to be included in a magazine’s circulation guarantee, or rate base.
So far ABC (NYSE: DIS) has confirmed that Conde Nast’s Wired was the first publication to seek review of its iPad version and it will qualify as a digital replica edition under the bureau’s new guidelines. Its Conde Nast sibling GQ has offered an ABC approved replica app for the iPhone and iPod Touch since December 2009.
The Newspaper Association of America, which formed a joint task force with ABC on the issue of e-edition circ, sounds particularly gratified by the changes, which could help boost pubs’ ad rates by showing greater circ beyond print.
“The changes announced today, combined with the move toward a ‘total circulation model’ that has already been approved, will provide our advertising customers with more transparency and more market data than ever before,” said NAA president and CEO John Sturm in a statement. “The modifications define the concept of total circulation to include all the elements reported today: paid and verified circulation, electronic platforms and branded editions. Newspapers will have the opportunity to report new products and distribution patterns in a report that also contains traditional paid circulation and audience information for their flagship publications.” Release
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