From January 2006 onward, publishers must receive payment for ads run at a qualifying price "net of all other considerations, such as agent marketing and distribution fees." The ABC also voted to require that all magazine subscription sponsors sell their products directly to consumers, thus narrowing the definition of that type of sponsorship.

The decision comes after the ABC censured EBSCO Consumer Magazine Services (ECMS), a subscription sales agent, for improper record-keeping in March of 2005, and at this month's meeting disqualified the circulation claimed as paid from ECMS sponsorship programs due to lack of qualified sponsors and a lack of payment. The ABC also recently disqualified the circulation of sponsorship programs managed by InFlight Newspapers and Magazines Inc., as InFlight didn't pay publishers for copies of the magazine in which its ads appeared.

The EBSCO and InFlight brouhahas were just two of several recent circulation scandals. In June 2004, it was revealed that the New York daily newspaper Newsday and its Spanish-language sister publication Hoy had been overstating their circulation by several thousand copies per issue. Three former circulation managers were arrested by federal agents and charged with criminal fraud last month, having allegedly worked with distributors to falsify circulation numbers. Two Gruner & Jahr magazines, the defunct Rosie and YM, faced similar circulation scandals.

The 4,000-member ABC is ranked as the largest circulation-auditing organization in the world.