• by Erik Sass , June 18, 2008

The board of directors at BPA Worldwide has approved new disclosure rules for reporting circulation, tightening the definition of certain kinds of circulation. It is also issuing new policies for reporting digital audiences.

Beginning this December, circulation reports will include a provision stating that average nonqualified circulation figures do not include single-copy sales returns. This will address a request from a BPA member that average print orders be included in the circulation reports, without disclosing single-copy sales returns, which are not reported by BPA to protect publishers' proprietary sell-through data.

The BPA board also approved a proposal to include loyalty points programs that reward customers' non-financial activities, including earning points for taking a survey, which can later be exchanged for goods and services. To qualify for reporting, however, the BPA must approve the program.

Finally, the BPA is changing the way that previous years' circulation data is recorded in circulation reports. The data, intended to allow media buyers to conduct trend analysis, used to include the five previous full years' data. However, to allow more meaningful comparisons between six-month reporting periods, the BPA will now only record data for the comparable six-month reporting periods from the last three years.