ABC approves new digital edition circulation reporting

Though for most magazines digital readers are a quite small proportion of their overall audience, there is a  steadily growing trend and it is marked by a recent approval in digital reporting rules by the Audit Bureau of Circulation (ABC), one of the two largest third-party circulation auditing organizations.

The ABC board of directors last week approved a number of changes, according to a story in Folio: and this will lead to a new prototype publisher's statement that will include measurements of reader interaction in digital editions. The new format will likely take effect by July 1, 2013. (Magazines are only required to report on their digital platforms if they have at least 3,000 copies of digital editions, representing more than 2 per cent of total circulation.)

The new prototype requires publishers to report the number of unique browsers or devices accessing their digital magazines, as well as total visits and average visit duration. The reports will also call for greater detail on print and digital magazine subscriptions and single-copy sales.

At the same time it approved the new digital reporting format, the ABC board also announced it would require larger magazines to report on an issue-by-issue basis to ensure more timely data. This would come into effect January 2013.