IPA Unhappy With Plans To Handle Birmingham Papers’ False ABCs

The Institute of Practitioners in Advertising (IPA) has said that it is not satisfied with undertakings made by the Birmingham Post & Mail (BPM) to offer advertisers compensation for six years of inflated circulations for three of the group’s newspapers.

Last month it was discovered by BPM’s parent company, Trinity Mirror, that the Birmingham Evening Mail, Birmingham Post and Sunday Mercury have been publishing over-exaggerated ABC figures for a period of six years (see ABC Suspends Birmingham Titles). At the time Trinity Mirror set aside £20 million to cover compensation claims from advertisers who had paid for space in the papers on the basis of their circulation figures.

At a meeting with the IPA last week, BPM proposed that an arbitration panel be set up to determine the levels of compensation payable to advertisers. However, the IPA has since dismissed such a panel as being ‘unnecessary and complicated’.

Marc Mendoza, a member of the IPA Media Policy Group responsible for press sales practices, says: “We think the arbitration panel is a smokescreen. We see the issue as a straightforward one. Birmingham Post & Mail published inflated ABC figures. It should now pay compensation based on the amount by which its circulation figures were inflated.”

The arbitration panel proposed by BPM would be chaired by an independent QC. However, the IPA is now advising its members not to respond to any approaches from BPM’s lawyers, saying that these lawyers will only serve their client’s interests.

“Their insistence on an arbitration panel to sort out what is a very simple matter is beginning to undermine the initial confidence with which the industry greeted the deceleration of the erroneous circulation figures,” added Mendoza.

Institute Of Practitioners In Advertising: 0171 235 7020 Trinity Mirror: 0171 293 3000