New Circ-Centric BPA Rules for Digital Magazines Are A Setback for Ad Sales

The new rules offer nice-to-know information for advertisers, but not the kind that an audit really needs to verify.

By Josh Gordon
03/09/2010 -11:26 AM

I am disappointed in the new BPA rule changes for digital editions. The changes allow a publisher to state the kind of content being delivered as one of four categories:

Dynamic– Editorial can be created and/or selected at point of delivery.

Targeted– Editorial is changed for specifically defined groups and/or platforms before point of delivery.

Enhanced– If a print brand existed first, “enhanced” is editorial that is retained from the original edition and is redesigned and/or supplemented.

Replica– If a print brand existed first, editorial and design are unchanged from the original print edition.

I see no benefit to an advertiser in having the kind information in a BPA audit. Nice to know? Sure, but this not the kind of information an audit really needs to verify. If an advertiser really needs to know, they can just ask the rep or flip the pages themselves.

Advertisers do not and should not care about this. How we attract our audience is our business; how we accurately claim the audience size is what needs to be audited. Instead, I advocate following the lead of the ABCe audit, now only available in Europe, that documents the number of digital editions that are delivered and opened. On an ABCe audit, 70,000 circulation means 70,000 copies sent and opened.

In addition, I recommend measuring the time spent per page viewed. According to the new study, “The Case for Advertising in Interactive Digital Magazines,” what advertisers really look for in digital magazines is their ability to deliver interactive reader experiences, not just clicks. An audit that measured time spent on pages viewed would be a real service to media buyers, as well as being a help to media sales.

The next time out, I recommend BPA change the rules to help media buyers understand the comparative value of advertising in digital editions with other media, not just clarify the end result of the circulation management process.

Josh Gordon is president of Smarter Media Sales where he works with publishers to maximize their online and print revenue through training, consulting, and representation.