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Publishers’ use of verified, or public place, circulation is under scrutiny from advertisers and media buyers who are wondering just how heavily publishers are relying on the metric to meet their rate bases.
The Audit Bureau of Circulations began having magazines break out verified copies - those unpaid copies that are placed in public places - within their circulation reports last year. And media buyers worry that publishers are increasing unpaid circulation rather than lowering their rate bases to more organic levels, writes Mediaweek.
It seems the concern may have some merit, when looking at how close certain magazines have come to missing their rate bases, and to how high their unpaid circ. reporting has become.
For example, Meredith Corp.’s Better Homes and Gardens delivered its 7.6 million rate base with just 15,179 copies to spare, and verified accounted for 2.3 percent of the total.
Robin Steinberg, senior vp, director of print investment for MediaVest, is quoted as saying, “It is absolutely unacceptable for a magazine to use verified circulation in order to make up for rate base underdelivery on an issue-by-issue basis and/or a six-month average.”
Verified circ. can also vary wildly from issue to issue, which makes advertisers sit up and take notice. For the first five months of the reporting period, verified circ for Hearst Magazines’ Marie Claire accounted for a tiny percentage of total copies, but in June it shot up to 285,893 copies. The magazine overdelivered on its 950,000 rate base by 223,797 copies that month.
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