Timely circ data: who'd a thunk it?

One of the largest auditing firms, BPA Worldwide, has announced its intention to move to release of at least the "top line" circulation of magazines for each issue, rather than in six-monthly reports as has been done since...forever. According to a report in Media Daily News, advertisers and agencies have long complained that data takes so long to be processed that it is next to useless in determining ad buys. If this reporting change happens, it will happen here, too, since we share both major auditing firms and there will be pressure on the Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC) to follow suit.

The same report said that Time Inc. has been subpoenaed to appear before U.S. federal investigators to explain the always dodgy practice of magazines counting free magazines distributed on airlines and to business travellers as "paid".