'Buy Safe' Campaign Organizers Rebuke Criticism

'Buy Safe' Campaign Organizers Rebuke Criticism
By Bill Mickey
http://circman.com
Publishers weigh in; BPA, ABC Defend Initiative.
Buy Safe Media, the BPA and ABC-backed campaign warning marketers against buying ads in non-audited b-to-b publications, has faced unusually harsh criticism since its launch last week.

Industry pundits, including consultant and noted columnist Bob Sacks, were among the first to weigh in on the program, calling the initiative "an attack at the heart of the entrepreneurial publishing business." Sacks wrote: "The new pathology actually disgusts me."

Samir "Mr. Magazine" Husni lamented "how low some folks in our industry are willing to sink in order to make their business flourish."

And it wasn't just pundits who were disturbed. At Access Intelligence, where several prominent titles remain un-audited, including CableFax and MIN, Sylvia Sierra, SVP, corporate audience development, downplays the need for an audit. "Some of our strongest brands are not audited and take advertising. It is hard to argue the $1,000-per year subscription value that readers place on the information and advertisers place on reach."

A 'Legitimate Beef'

Yet, Ted Bahr, president of BZ Media, and an official supporter of the Buy Safe campaign is more concerned about the publishers that fly under the radar and push inflated or inaccurate metrics.

"I am spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to acquire and maintain the circulation I am claiming, then I spend the money maintaining it in BPA required formats, then I pay BPA between $10,000-$15,000 to audit my books," he says. "That's the ethical standard for publishing in this industry. My competitors are therefore able to spend way less than I do, and compete with me by cheating and lying to our mutual customers. My only recourse is to try and educate the advertisers that they need to pressure these outlaws into auditing."

BPA CEO Glenn Hansen adds, "Publishers that have made that investment have a legitimate beef with those that cannot demonstrate from an independent verification that they have made that same investment."

Ditto for the Audit Bureau of Circulations, which also backs the Buy Safe program as a partner. "The campaign site specifically notes that auditing is not a necessity for all publications," says Neal Lulofs, ABC's SVP, communications and strategic planning. "I can't fathom why the promotion of media auditing would 'disgust' someone. We are an auditing firm and we are promoting the benefits of auditing-for publishers and buyers alike. We are not 'forcing' anyone to become audited. But in competitive environments, buyers usually insist on it. For instance, there isn't a single paid-circ newspaper above 25,000 in the U.S. that isn't audited. That's not because we force them to do that, but because audited newspapers attract more ad dollars."

A Question of Demand

Yet smaller ad buyers-as BPA confirmed when it was surveying client-side media buyers prior to launching the campaign-may not care or even know about audits. At Hanley Wood, which has several un-audited titles in its stable of more than 30 magazines, auditing is more of a case-by-case consideration. "It depends on the advertiser market," says Nick Cavnar, VP circulation and database development. "Advertiser markets dominated by small advertisers that don't work through agencies aren't that familiar with the statement format. They don't understand it so there's not a great demand for it."

This is precisely why BPA launched the Buy Safe Media campaign, but Cavnar focuses on the practicalities of auditing. "If we don't have advertisers asking for one, then we may not audit the magazine. We work according to what advertisers are looking for. We run the circulation the same way whether it's audited or not. It's a question of whether it's something that helps in the advertising sales."

Audit Landscape Getting Complicated

Sacks and Husni took the Buy Safe program to task because they say it's magazines attacking magazines, and that energy could be better applied to arguing the print medium's viability against other media-TV, radio, and online.

Yet Hansen circles back to accountability and the advertiser's demand for it. "In a perfect market, where all magazines are audited, I think Bob and Samir are justified in saying, 'Don't fight among yourselves, fight against other media. But in a market where we're not all yet at the same level playing field, I think that's an unfair expectation on their behalf. It's not the fact that it's BPA or ABC-it's the fact that they've made the investment in developing quality audience and they can prove that and that gives the advertiser accountability."

But, according to Access Intelligence's Sierra, there is a bigger picture to be focusing on-the mash-up of media platforms. "We are now media companies whose portfolios include print magazines and many other assets," she says. "Most of the other assets (Web sites, e-letters, trade shows, Webinars, paid information) are not audited, and yet, revenue is shifting from print magazine advertising to the other assets. Advertisers want to know 'Who are these people?' and the audit bureaus are not showing reach, only numbers. I can't think of a single reason to pay for the current audit offerings given their shortcomings."

BoSacks Speaks Out: BPA-ABC's Unwise Attack on Magazines

BoSacks Speaks Out: BPA-ABC's Unwise Attack on Magazines

The new pathology detailed below actually disgusts me. There are over 18,000 magazines printed today and of that number 7,000 are newsstand titles. There are approximately 1,000 new titles started each year. This report and the campaign against legitimate magazines listed below is an attack at the heart of the entrepreneurial publishing business. ABC, ABM, BPA, and the Association of National Advertisers have a very minor fraction of the titles published in their bullpen, yet they wish to crush all who stand in their way or choose not join their exclusive clubs. I am not alone with these feelings. Samir Husni wrote to me in an email last night that:

. . . it is about time for magazines to start looking at customers who count and not just counting customers . . . those folks who publish great magazines like Good and Flaunt do not need an auditor to tell them how many people are receiving their magazine. Their customers, both the advertisers and the readers know the relationship that they enjoy between the reader and the magazine . . . It is a pure case of jealousy and greed to launch such a campaign. When are we going to learn not to attack each other and focus on other media. Advertisers who want to reach that unique upscale audience of V magazine are not interested to see either the ABC audit or the BPA audit . . . When are we going to learn . . . I have no earthly idea . . .

It is unconscionable to attempt to crush the rest of the industry. It is attacks and stupidity like this that will tear down the very industry that they are attempting to prop up with self-serving dogma. Like chastity, auditing is/and should be a choice. A pox on all your houses; but I cannot wish harm on my industry by wishing that ye reap what ye sow.
BoSacks
-30-

Fear is the main source of superstition, and one of the main sources of cruelty. To conquer fear is the beginning of wisdom.
Bertrand Russell (1872 - 1970), Unpopular Essays (1950), "Outline of Intellectual Rubbish"

BPA and Friends Turn up Heat on Un-Audited Magazines
By Bill Mickey
http://www.circman.com/viewmedia.asp?prmMID=4025&prmID=1

An educational campaign targets client-side, b-to-b buyers. BPA, along with about 10 other association and auditing bodies, including ABC, has ramped up a campaign to combat ad buying in un-audited titles. Called Buy Safe Media, the program targets client-side buyers in b-to-b markets that spend $250,000 or less on advertising. The program, initiated two years ago by BPA at the request of member publishers, has emerged from a testing and research phase and the 11 associations and auditing bodies have begun to reach out to their constituencies in earnest.

"About two years ago, our publisher members on the b-to-b side were telling us that more and more of the buying decisions were being made at the client level, not through an agency," says Peter Black, BPA's SVP, business development. "They were concerned that the person at the client company did not have an appreciation for audits or quality circulation data." BPA conducted a Web-based survey of about 500 b-to-b client companies across a variety of markets in spring 2007. The results turned in very low numbers for audit awareness.

The survey inquired about certain criteria upon which buyers based their purchase decisions-placement of editorial, price, audit, and so on.

"There was a choice for 'other,'" recalls Glenn Hansen, BPA's CEO. "We had over 300 written-in responses to the 'other.' When we analyzed that, about two-thirds were actual attributes that an audit would provide, but the respondent didn't associate with an audit. They wrote in things like distribution, quality circulation and proven audience." A personalized direct mail campaign was then launched last fall targeting CEOs, CFOs and, finally, media buyers at 1250 companies identified as having purchased ads in un-audited magazines across five b-to-b markets.

The mailing cited the number of pages that company had purchased over the year along with the dollar value of those pages. The letter also pushed the recipient to the Buy Safe Media program's Web site, which features a video and information on the pitfalls of buying un-audited media. "Insist on audited media, and be safe," urges the site. "Based on our tracking, we got a ten percent response rate to the direct mail [from the CEOs]," says Hansen. "Then we broadened it to CFOs and we got a six percent response from them." The third effort, however, targeted to the actual media buyer, squeaked out a .5 percent response.

"Maybe they just didn't want to be faced with the reality that they bought un-audited media and there were a lot of dollars at risk," says Black. Supporters backing the initiative include ABC, ABM, BPA, the Association of National Advertisers, and seven others. "Everybody is handling communications with their respective memberships," says Black. BPA, for example, has announced a Webinar on the subject to recruit more publisher partners.

Following that, another direct mail campaign targeting 3300 CEOs and 800 CFOs from companies that buy six or more pages annually in un-audited titles will be launched next week. "We will cite the number of pages they're running, the likely dollar value of those pages, and the message will be to drive them to the Web site to give them more information to better safeguard their investment," says Black.

BoSacks Speaks Out: "Trust but Verify"?

I'm not upset that you lied to me, I'm upset that from now on I can't believe you"
Friedrich Nietzsche (German classical Scholar, Philosopher and Critic of culture, 1844-1900.)

BoSacks Speaks Out: "Trust but Verify"?
You can draw your own conclusions here, but I say that the claims of 50 engaged readers per public copy is at the heart of some of our circulation problems. In Doctor's waiting rooms people are not relaxed. They are not lounging with carefree time. They are thinking about the Doctor, the problems, the pains that they are there to fix, some times big and some times small.

Distracted from their problems perhaps, . . . totally engaged by a magazine they found on a table . . . ?


Whatever Happened to "Trust but Verify"?
By Kristina Joukhadar
http://www.circman.com/viewmedia.asp? prmMID=3097&prmID=1

"Trust but verify." That was the consensus at the Joint Panel of Buyers and Sellers at the annual Audit Bureau of Circulations conference last November when the category of verified circulation was officially introduced.

Yet some circulators told CM they were holding their breath, waiting for advertisers to request rebates on verified circulation. One of the main topics at a subsequent ABC panel of circulators and agency execs, chaired by media consultant and veteran journalist Karlene Lukovitz, was the value of public place circulation and how it was perceived by advertisers.

On that panel, Rebecca McPheters referred to the research her company had done in conjunction with Time Inc., which documented the fact that public place copies have 30 to 50 readers per copy-and that these are people in waiting rooms who are totally engaged with the magazine.

"Any source has a wide range in quality," McPheters said at that time, "it all depends on how engaged the readers are. Public place represents a multiple of the readers you get with subscriptions or newsstand copies. No source category is [inherently] good or bad-the ultimate value is to reach engaged readers with the demographics you want to reach."

In these previous discussions, many circulators have been concerned that advertisers and their agencies would use the verified circulation category as an excuse to knock down the value of circulation and therefore the advertising price.

Or, as one outspoken circ director said over a year ago, "It just gives advertisers another club to beat us over the head with." Based on the comments in this week's article in Advertising Age ("Marketers to Mags: Give Guarantees or We'll Walk"), this is exactly what's happening.

Robin Steinberg of MediaVest speaks in the article about the use of verified circulation, saying "we believe the proper use [of verified circ] is not taking place, and the current use is to make up for rate base under- delivery from newsstand decline."

But if newsstand sales figures can fluctuate by as much as 20 percent from issue to issue, isn't this a "catch-22"? Does it mean circulation must always be 20 percent higher than rate base in case the newsstand sales dip on a particular issue?

Who will pay for the overage? Will the advertisers pay a premium for the number of copies over rate base? Or would they prefer to wait for a six-month average, as is now the case with the ABC Audit Reports?

The reasoning behind advertiser/agency requests for issue-by-issue guarantees of circ that does not fluctuate, is said to be based on all the competition from online media, where the ad charges are based on page views and click throughs. However, as we have seen over the past few months, the measurement of the online numbers is not at all transparent.

Circulation/audience measurement and reader engagement are complex concepts to master in any medium. We believe circulators and their publishers are doing everything in their power to provide accuracy and transparency for their advertisers.

The necessary tools and metrics are just not there yet. And until they are, it is encumbent on all the parties involved to verify, yes, but verify with trust.