BPA Approves New Rules

Board: ‘Digital’ is now ‘electronic’.

By Bill Mickey
06/17/2008

BPA Worldwide’s May board of directors’ meeting produced new rules, including decisions on paid company requests, integrated media reporting and digital pre-audits—or, that is, “electronic” pre-audits, for the term “digital” has now officially given way to “electronic.”

In a blog post announcing and summarizing the new rules, BPA CEO Glenn Hansen noted the rules are effective immediately.

Digital pre-audits are now required only at company level. The 220 member publishers that report digital circ are spared “no further pre-audits of that company using the same vendor…” Digital pre-audits are only required at the “same company/same vendor” level, according to Hansen.

The term “digital” has been ditched, according to the new rules. Instead, “electronic” will now be used when referring to electronic editions of magazines. “There are a number of definitions for the word ‘digital’ in a media owner’s portfolio, including: digital magazines, websites and email newsletter products,” says Hansen. “To eliminate this confusion, the BPA Board voted to change ‘digital’ to ‘electronic edition’ throughout the rule book when referring to electronic version of print publications and magazines.”

Allowing for timely reporting, the board ruled that integrated data (Web site traffic, event attendance, pass-along rates, and so on) should be audited within the period reported on the circ statement. However, audited data can be older, concluded the Board, “if the most recent occurrence, such as an annual trade show, conference or pass-along receivership audit falls outside the statement period.”

To appeal to fulfillment providers and media buyers, the board ruled that paid copies reported as “request from recipient’s company” can now be reported as “direct request from the recipient.”

For a complete list and explanation of the rule changes and amendments, see the BPA Executive Summary May 2008 at BPA's Web site.