• by Joe Mandese  @mp_joemandese, September 24, 2010

Business press auditing firm BPA Worldwide today released notices of probation for certain BPA-audited magazines published by Advantage Business Media. The BPA found that an offshore telemarketing service provider used by Advantage Business Media supplied recordings of telephone solicitations to the BPA that were not of the persons identified in the recordings. These findings were made during the BPA's normal process of audit confirmation which is conducted to authenticate telephone verification recordings provided as source documents for an audit test.

"Advantage Business Media cooperated fully with the BPA's investigation into the vendor," said Richard Reiff, CEO of Advantage Business Media LLC.  "Importantly for our advertisers, the investigation revealed that the magazines' circulation files were largely accurate and most of the subscribers the vendor solicited for requalification were genuine, despite the falsified recordings they provided.  This is reflected in the limited reductions in Advantage Business Media's reported circulation made by the BPA."

"Regardless of the fact that Advantage Business Media did not directly do anything wrong, we are working to rectify this situation quickly with minimal disruption. We have already begun requalifying all magazine subscription records provided by this vendor."

"We began reaching out to advertisers as soon as we became fully aware of the situation. Our customers have been very understanding and many told us how they appreciated hearing of the situation from us first. With every phone call we validated how fortunate we are to have customers and salespeople who trust and value each other and their relationships with Advantage Business Media."