Definition:
More than one publication available under any scheme (other than subscription) to readers at a combined price.

The following guidelines are required to be followed:

1. Combined price along with the titles / names of publications involved in the combo offer shall be distinctly mentioned on the print line below the masthead on all publications involved in a Combo offer.
2. Average number of Combo copies of the respective publications in an offer will be shown separately on the respective ABC Certificate and shall be reckoned for certification.
3. No gift either in the form of a publication registered with RNI or in any other form will be permitted for combo offers (non subscription).
4. The combo price to be atleast 50% of the combined cover prices of all publications involved in a combo offer.
5. In case of a combo offer of a daily / weekly / monthly the combined price to be similarly worked out and should be atleast 50% of the cover price of all publications involved in the combo offer.
6. Number of combo copies to be separately shown in the print order of the respective publications.
7. Combo copies should be separately billed to agents / sub agents at the prescribed trade terms.
8. In case a Publication, which is not a member of the Bureau but is offered under a combo offer, then the member publication shall arrange for verification of the distribution and financial books and records of the non-member publication. The member publication will then arrange to obtain a written confirmation from a non-member publication that it’s financial & distribution books & records are open for scrutiny by Bureau’s Auditors / officials.
9. The new qualifying criteria, (NRR) will be applicable to all publications under the combo offer taken together at the prescribed combo price less trade commission / delivery charges, as applicable.

All copies sold to the reader at the prescribed cover price.

Copies of newspapers (Dailies & Weeklies) which are either sold directly by the publishers and/or his distributing trade to organisations not connected with newspaper distribution trade provided bonafides of the organisation(s) involved in Institutional Sales are established to the satisfaction of the auditors (Unless Auditors/Bureau having any evidence to the contrary).

Institutional Sales are accepted for certification only to the extent of 10% of Qualifying Sales.

Different print runs / variants of the main paper distributed in the same market place would be considered for combined certification.

Sub-titles / different names of variants (if applicable) are required to be mentioned below the line separating the title panel or mast-head in a font size not exceeding 1/4th font size of a title.

Different print run / variant of the main paper in the same market place would be defined as having any of the following differentiation:

sub-title, content, cover price, pagination, advertisement rate, size of the newspaper etc.

The title , language, frequency and ownership of the variants should be similar. Average qualifying circulation figures of all variants of the main paper in the same market place would be prominently shown on the first page of the ABC certificate of circulation.

A break-up of average qualifying circulation of each different print run/ variant of the main paper would be required to be submitted by newspaper publisher members for every audit period.

Publisher members may publish a particular print run of a title in different sizes i.e. tabloid for one print run for a specific market and broadsheet for the rest of the print runs for other markets. The broadsheet as well as tabloid would be considered for certification together provided the title, frequency, language and ownership of the publication remain the same.

Break-up of circulation details of broadsheet as well as tabloid in a particular market place would be separately shown on the first page of the ABC Certificate of circulation for the benefit of users of the certificate. Publisher to provide the breakup in the incoming certificate filed with the Bureau

A weekly print run of a daily newspaper cannot be certified together if a publication decides to publish a particular print run only once a week with the same title. The said publication would then be categorised as a weekly and therefore cannot be clubbed together with the circulation figures of a daily newspaper.