Emap to restate circulation figures
Magazine publisher Emap is to restate circulation figures for 14 titles after infringing rules that define how sales are measured, it emerged today.
Emap said a routine inspection by the Audit Bureau of Circulation (ABC) had found it had wrongly included non-controlled free copies as paid-for bulk sales.
Paid-for bulk sales are deals made with companies to buy a number of copies at a percentage of the cover price.
Night clubs in Ibiza buy copies of Mixmag, for example, while Paul Smith clothes shops take Arena.
Non-controlled free copies are where there is no evidence a free subscription has been requested by the person receiving the magazine.
Emap chief executive Chris Boyd said: “We just registered them in the wrong category, and that misinterpretation has been deemed by ABC as an infringement.”
Titles affected include Arena, Elle, FHM, Mixmag, Here’s Health, Mother and Baby, New Woman, Pregnancy and Birth, Q, Red, The Face, Slimming, Smash! Hits and Top Sante.
Circulation for Smash! Hits was 190,177 and Arena 38,326 in January to June 2002 and both are expected to be down by around 20% after the restatement.
Top Sante was less affected, however, with circulation figures down by around 7% for the same period.
A Emap spokeswoman said: “There’s no question that these titles were not legitimately distributed.
That’s why there is no impact on advertising because of a combination of active sales and the fact that they ended up in a legitimate audience’s hands.”
In a letter to customers, Emap said: “We have taken the decision not to appeal because, although the copies were legitimate sampling exercises, having investigated the situation for ourselves, we have to accept that we were mistaken in our interpretation of ABC bulk rules.”
