BusinessWeek's decision to submit to a BPA Worldwide audit in addition to one conducted by its rival, the Audit Bureau of Circulations, has generated a lukewarm response from ABC.
ABC, in a statement from its Schaumburg, IL, head office, said few publications are dual audited. It can occur when providing consolidated reports or reporting to a particular set of users.
“While we disagree with the need for this redundancy, we respect BusinessWeek's decision,” ABC president/managing editor Mike Lavery said in the statement. “We also appreciate BusinessWeek's continued commitment to ABC through its membership in the organization.”
BusinessWeek's North American edition becomes the first major consumer magazine to offer two circulation audits to advertisers. The move comes as major publishers such as Tribune Co. and Hollinger International have been tripped up over fudged statements.
“We believe that proactively holding ourselves to two independent standards of audit disclosure is an important way to emphasize that we want our advertisers to be totally confident about our circulation,” BusinessWeek president/publisher William Kupper said in a statement from New York.
BPA, Shelton, CT, for six years has audited BusinessWeek's Chinese edition. The first BPA audit of the North American edition will be available next year.
Owned by McGraw-Hill Cos., BusinessWeek is the world's largest business magazine. Sold in 140 countries, the title's global weekly circulation is nearly 1.2 million. The magazine turned 75 on Sept. 9.
