ABC revises circulation figures after bulks investigation

Following its investigation into bulk copies of newspapers distributed to airlines by Dawson Media Direct, the ABC has issued revised national newspaper reports showing reduced circulations for some titles for the nine months to the end of June.

Circulations at titles including the Daily Mail, Daily Telegraph and Financial Times are affected by the decision.

ABC has also released revised reports for the October to June period for the London Evening Standard, Mail on Sunday and Sunday Telegraph.

In a statement released today, ABC said: “During an inspection of the claimed circulation of airline multiple copy sales for periods October 2008 to April 2009, the required Reporting Standards could not be met in full for the following publications as the audit trail for payment of certain copies was not compliant with the standards.

“Therefore for these publications the claimed circulation has been adjusted in relation to those copies, see individual certificates for details.”

Associated Newspapers and Telegraph Media Group issued a joint statement in response to the decision. It said: “”The decision of the ABC to restate the airport sales figures from October 2008-April 2009 is a result of a technical hitch in the audit trail, certain copies were found not to be compliant in full with the ABC’s required reporting standards.

“Dawson Media Direct (DMD) is the approved ABC distributor and was responsible for the delivery arrangements of these airport copies. Newspaper publishers have no direct oversight of the distribution process involved or the contracts with the airlines.

“An independent audit funded by the Newspaper Publishers’ Association of these airport sales has now been carried out successfully and the ABC is working with the NPA to produce revised industry regulations.

“DMD has assured publishers that during the October-April period the actual copies of our newspapers were correctly distributed to airlines and airports allowing them to be picked up and read by airport passengers as normal.

“Airline sales remain a part of our distribution strategy, and are an important means of targeting potential customers.”

Earlier this week, GNM announced that it is axing the distribution of bulks in order to “increase transparency”