| |
- PREAMBLE
Membership of the Bureau entitles a publisher-member to use the fact of his
membership and circulation figures certified by it, for publicity and promotion of his
publication/s, in conformity with the rules as set out in Sections 2, 3 and 4
hereunder. These must be read in conjunction with each other and not in isolation.
The rules apply to publicity and promotion carried out by a publisher member
himself as well as to publicity and promotion carried out on his behalf by any other
person or organisation.
These rules are intended to ensure that all publicity and promotion related to
circulation are carried out by publisher-members only on the basis of the
circulation figures certified by the Bureau.
Membership of the Bureau require members to abide by these rules and not to use
any figures or claims related to circulation in publicity and promotion that are not
certified by the Bureau.
- DEFINITIONS / SCOPE
- CIRCULATION
- ‘Circulation' shall always mean the Average Qualifying Sales of Daily
& Weekly Newspapers shown in Part A of the ABC Certificate of
Circulation OR Net Paid Circulation of Magazines of the entire audit
period as certified by the Bureau for the last completed ABC Audit
period.
- Circulation figures given under Part B of the ABC Certificate of
circulation in case of Daily and Weekly Newspapers are intended for
information purpose only and should not be used, added together with
any other certified circulation figures for any publicity / promotion
campaign in any form whatsoever.
- Publisher Members may if they so desire, publicise their average
Weekday, average Sunday circulation figure provided the figure of
average Qualifying Sales / Net Paid Circulation is also shown in the
publicity as prominently as (same font size) the average Weekday or
average Sunday circulation figure.
- Provided month-to-month circulation figures for the entire six-monthly
audit period are quoted along with the Average Qualifying Sales / Net
Paid Circulation for the period, monthly average circulation figures
shall not be used selectively for the purpose of publicity and promotion.
If so desired, copies of ABC Certificates issued by the Bureau may be
circulated or used for publicity without any alterations.
- Distribution data appearing in the Area Breakdown Statement of the
same audit period, certified by the Bureau may be used for publicity
and promotion.
- PUBLICITY AND PROMOTION
Publicity and Promotion' shall always mean the providing of any
information whatsoever relating to circulation, through the release of
advertisements in any medium and in any other form, such as Ad rate
cards, brochures, leaflets, circulars or handouts etc.
The term `in any other form' referred to above will also cover one-to-one
communication addressed by publisher members to more than one person.
Such one-to-one communication shall not contain information relating to or
based on circulation figures, or any other figures not certified by the Bureau
- for example, no reference will be allowed to print order figures or
projections made on circulations whether certified by the Bureau or not.
- RULES
- Membership of a publisher with the Bureau can be publicised and used only
after confirmation of membership and issue of first ABC Certificate and not
while the application is under consideration.
- Publisher member may use the ABC insignia and the statement "Member
of Audit Bureau of Circulations" for publicity and promotion of his
publication/s as long as he is a member of the Bureau. No reference shall
be made either to the ABC or the circulation figures certified by it for any
audit period for the purpose of publicity or promotion after he ceases to be a
member. Violation of this requirement may disqualify the concerned
publisher from seeking re-admission to Bureau membership. The Council
shall, however, retain its discretion to re-admit a member if it so desires.
-
When a publisher member uses circulation figures in publicity and
promotion, he shall only use circulation figures as defined in para 2(a).
Publisher may also, if he so desires, use circulation figures of any previous
period/s as certified by the Bureau along with the certified circulation
figures of the last ABC Audit Period. The period/s to which they relate must
be specified.
Where circulation figures for the last ABC audit period have not been
certified by the Bureau for any reason, the publisher must indicate the
same in his publicity and promotion.
-
Publisher member must not use any figures which are not certified by the
Bureau such as print order figures, for the purpose of publicity and
promotion.
-
Publisher member may use comparative circulation figures in respect of
other member publications for the purpose of publicity and promotion, along
with his own, provided circulation figures are such as have been certified by
the Bureau for the last completed ABC audit period. (along with those for
any previous period as certified by the Bureau, if so desired, shown
separately.)
Publisher member may use circulation figures relating to his own
publication/s based on the ABC certificates issued to him. In case of data
of other member publications, such data will be sourced from the
Preliminary Lists of Circulation, Serial Volumes, Bureau’s website or any
other publication released by the Bureau.
Comparisons must be made on the basis of circulation figures relating to
the same audit period/s.
If for any reason, circulation figures for any publication/s are not certified,
the fact as stated in the Preliminary Lists, Serial Volumes, Bureau’s
website e.g. `Not a Member', `Not Accepted', `Under Consideration', ‘Not
Certified’, `Not Filed’ etc. must be clearly specified.
In case of comparison with multi-centre publications, all respective editions
of such member publication(s) enrolled with the Bureau alongwith the
circulation figures as certified must be separately specified.
In case a mutli-centre / multi-edition publication desires to publicise all India
certified circulation figures of average Qualifying Sales / Net Paid
Circulation, then such publication will be required to mention in the
publicity that the circulation figures quoted are the total average circulation
figures of a publication published from various centres (all centres to be
stated along with the respective circulation figures).
Further, in case of publicity of all India certified circulation figures by a
publication / title in a specific geographic viz. any Town / District / State, it
will be necessary to state the certified circulation figures of the relevant
Town / District / State as per the Area Breakdown Statement for the
relevant period.
Necessary details as above are to be provided even though no comparison
is made with any other member publication.
Where circulation figures of any edition / printing centre of any publication
are not certified, the same should be so indicated. However, totalling
across circulation figures certified by the Bureau of remaining editions /
printing centre of a title will then be permitted.
-
Whenever a publisher wishes to make a statement or claim relating to his
circulation in a specific region (e.g. State, Town, District, etc.), such
statement or claim shall be made only on the basis of the Area Breakdown
Statement of the corresponding audit period as certified by the Bureau.
Further such statement shall be made only on the basis of his circulation in
the stated region and not on the basis of total circulation of the publication
or edition emanating from the region.
- Publisher member shall not make any statement or claim relating to
circulation of his publication or that relating to other member publication/s
which cannot be substantiated by circulation figures certified by the Bureau.
Publisher member shall not make ambiguous claims relating to any
member publication. Unless, claims such as 'leading' 'number one' etc.
are otherwise qualified, these will be treated as circulation claims and will
be subject to the rules set out in this Code.
-
Whenever a publisher member publicises circulation figures, a copy of such
publicity /promotional material shall be sent to the Bureau for information.
-
OTHER PUBLICITY
All Correspondence exchanged by members with the Bureau on any matter
shall be deemed as CONFIDENTIAL and no copies thereof shall be
published/circulated by them to any person whether ABC member or not,
without prior approval of the Bureau.
-
CONTRAVENTION OF THE CODE
Cases of contravention of Bureau’s Code for Publicity will be considered by
the Bureau’s Disciplinary Committee formed specifically to deal with such
cases where necessary. The matter may also be referred to the Bureau’s
Council of Management for its consideration, if required.
Following action would be considered by the Bureau’s Disciplinary
Committee/Bureau’s Council of Management in cases of contravention of
Bureau’s Code for Publicity by Publisher Members.
- In case of contravention of the provisions of the Publicity Code for
the first time, the concerned Publisher member will be called upon to
publish a corrigendum advertisement as per the text provided by the
Bureau in size 20 x 3 cc on page 3 of the publication within a period
of 15 days from the date of intimation by the Secretariat.
- In those cases where the concerned Publisher member does not
publish the corrigendum advertisement within the stipulated time, as
above, and / or in case of a second violation by a publication / group
within a period of one year the Bureau would then in such cases,
inform all members through a circular the factual position in relation
to contravention of the Bureau’s Code for Publicity and also issue a
press release to this effect.
The erring Publisher member will however be required to publish the
corrigendum advertisement despite the above actions by the
Bureau.
- In case of multiple instances of contravention of the provisions of the
Bureau’s Code for Publicity by a publication / group in a period of two
years or Publisher’s failure to comply with the Bureau’s directives in
(i) & (ii) above, then the Bureau’s Council of Management may show
cause the concerned Publisher member as to why their Bureau
Membership should not be terminated under the provisions of Article
44(a) of the Bureau’s Articles of Association.
|