Natmags to lodge complaint against ABC circulation rules

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The National Magazine Company is calling for a reform of the rules used to audit magazine circulations, after complaining that it had been "let down" by industry body the Audit Bureau of Circulations .

The publisher has disputed the ABC's official figure for one of its titles, women's monthly Prima, which it said was docked 30,000 copies on a "technicality".

Natmags will bring up the issue at the next meeting of the Reporting Standards Group - a committee made up of representatives of the publishers that fund ABC and the major advertising agencies - and says it is "confident that the rule will be rewritten".

Prima claimed a circulation of 297,000 copies in the last half of 2010 - up 3 per cent year on year - but ABC has put the figure at 268,421, a decline of 7.2 per cent.

The ABC figure excludes the magazine's September newsstand stales because it included a cover-mounted copy of an old edition of Best magazine as a free sampler.

The magazine should, according to ABC, have been declared as a multi-pack, not a single title.

Natmags said the September issue was purchased by consumers in exactly the same way as the others, at the same price of £2.80, and should not have been disqualified.

"We believe the rules are ambiguous and that the ABC has let us, our advertisers and our customers down," the company said in a statement .

"This technicality is not in the spirit of the ABC rules and does not uphold the interest of all ABC members."

Natmags said it had the support of its advertisers and will continue to use the higher figure of 297,000, which it has had independently audited.

ABC today defended its decision to disqualify Prima . It said the multi-packed copies were not eligible because the pricing was not compliant with the rules.

The auditor said in a statement: "During the last audit period, following a consultation with the National Magazine Company, ABC ruled that multi-packed copies of the September issue of Prima did not meet the requirements to be eligible for inclusion in its ABC circulation claim for the period July-December 2010.

"The decision was taken fairly in accordance with the rules agreed by the industry, reviewed through the established ABC appeals procedure and was upheld at each stage, finally and unanimously by a panel of industry representatives."

The audit body said the rules were "open, transparent and provide comparability across publications".