Cheats will be exposed, warns ABC

The Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC) has warned publishers cheating their circulation figures that they will be exposed.
“Advertisers are becoming more discerning and discriminating… I know there are loopholes (in the ABC rules) but I can assure that you are going to be exposed,” ABC board member Gordon Patterson said at the release of the latest circulation data on Thursday morning.

“There is a growing resistance against high numbers of Bulk Free, Third Party Bulk and PMIE (Print Media in Education) and scepticism about what they (publishers) are doing,” he added, referring to copies handed out for free or at half-price.
Patterson also slammed new titles falsely claiming ABC membership.

“No ABC, no advertising, is becoming increasingly heard amongst advertisers,” he said.The president of the ABC, Gordon Utian, who is also managing director of Caxton, criticised Caxton’s rival Media24 for “creating a culture in your organisation where cheating is the norm.”

Twelve Media24 magazines have been suspended from the ABC for claiming false circulation figures.The perception in the industry was that the only crime Media24 committed was “getting caught”, Utian said.“People spend their lives cheating… and I find that reprehensible and disgusting. Print needs to come clean and bring forward figures that are true and accurate and advertisers need to check this. We (the ABC) are going to be more vigilant,” he warned.

Utian also called for new leadership within the Magazine Publishers Association of South Africa (Mpasa) which is headed by Patricia Scholtemeyer, the CEO of magazines at Media24.This article first appeared on eMedia, the electronic news flash of The Media magazine.