ABC To Review Audit Process Following False Circulation Figures

The Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC) is to review the stringency of its auditing procedures following the discovery of a six year falsification of the figures for three Birmingham newspapers. The Birmingham Post & Mail (BPM) titles – Birmingham Evening Mail, Birmingham Post and Sunday Mercury – were last month found to have been reporting inflated circulation figures for the last six years (see IPA Unhappy With Plans To Handle Birmingham Papers’ False ABCs). The ABC subsequently suspended the papers from the survey and launched its own investigation.

This investigation has now been completed and has led the ABC to consider whether its inspection process is secure enough to protect the audit process from being abused in this way. The BPM incident has caused the group’s owners, Trinity Mirror, to put aside £20 million to pay in compensation to advertisers that booked campaigns in the papers on the basis of the ABC circulation information (see IPA Unhappy With Plans To Handle Birmingham Papers’ False ABCs).

The three titles will continue to be suspended from the ABC audit until January 2000, after which they will be audited each month by ABC staff until December 2000. The six monthly average circulation figures, for the January to June 2000 period, will be available in August 2000.

Audit Bureau of Circulations: 01442 870 800