ABC launches its Subscriber Profile with data of The Beaver

The Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC) has released its first Subscriber Profile, a sort of halfway measure for magazines that don't or can't qualify for including in the Print Measurement Bureau (PMB) study, but want to have their research results validated by an independent third party. It costs, of course, but less than PMB, which represents mostly larger, national consumer magazines. The initial profile, highlighted in an ABC press release, is for The Beaver: Canada's National History Magazine, which has a paid circulation of 45,702. In a sense, this gives the Winnipeg magazine's independent research the good ABC seal of approval.

There are subtle variations in the Canadian approach, compared to the version that was launched in the U.S., but the purpose is the same. ABC does not perform the actual research; instead a magazine pays it to verify research results obtained from other sources and release a standardized report that allows for easy comparison of subscriber studies conducted by different survey research organizations for a variety of individual magazines. Subscriber Profile reports are made available to the public via ABC’s free data service.

In this case, The Beaver used the Winnipegeg-based research firm PRA Inc. to do a mailing to 1,000 randomly selected subscribers; ABC validated the methodology and reviewed the responses (which were in a very health 70% range). ABC then produced this, the first report for a Canadian magazine, which showed, among other things, that The Beaver skews male (66%), has a median age of 67, has an audience who is 55.6% retired, with a median household income of $71,000. 53% graduated from university, 31.7% have a postgraduate degree, and 14% have children under 18 living at home.