AUDIT BUREAU OF CIRCULATIONS, a organization of advertisers, advertising agencies, and publishers in the United States and Canada. Organized in 1914. Headquar ters, Chicago, Illinois. The objects of the bureau are described in the by-laws as follows: To issue standardized statements of the circulation of publisher members; to verify the figures shown in these statements by auditors' examinations of any and all records considered by the Bureau to be necessary ; and to disseminate circulation data only for the benefit of advertisers, advertising agencies and publishers.
Each Publisher's Statement and each Audit Report issued to mem bers shall embrace figures and facts bearing on the quantity, quality, distribution of circulation and circulation methods; thereby enabling quality as well as quantity to be established. The figures in the Audit Report shall be those verified by Bureau auditors. Facts, without opinion, to be reported.
In 1939 the membership numbered over 2,000, including approx imately 26o advertisers, 135 advertising agencies, 1,070 news papers, 220 magazines, 6o farm papers, and 270 business papers. Up to the time that the bureau was organized every publisher had his own conception of what constituted a paid subscriber so that one publisher who offered a circulation of ioo,000 might have actually a very different total from another publisher who claimed the same figure. Advertisers recognized the need of a common de nominator in measuring circulation and the need to have all pub lishers use the same standards of measurement. These needs have been supplied in the information that is contained in A.B.C. reports. The operating procedure of the bureau is briefly as follows: Twice a year each publisher member submits to the bureau a state ment answering questions that, in the group judgment of adver tisers, have a bearing on circulation values. These reports, known as Publisher's Statements, are printed and distributed to members. Once a year trained auditors from the bureau make an audit of the circulation records of each publisher member. These official audits are also printed and distributed to members.
The cost of operating the bureau is largely covered by the dues of the publisher members. But it is controlled by the buyers of advertising—the advertising agency and advertiser members. The managing director of the bureau operates under the direction of a board of directors of 27 men elected by the members. The direc tors include the representatives of 12 advertisers, 3 advertising agencies, and 12 publishers.
These men meet frequently to hear the reports of the bureau's activities and to act as a court of review in cases where publishers have been found delinquent in meeting the requirements of the bureau or where any publisher has a complaint against the man agement's interpretation of the rules. The growth of publication advertising in the United States and Canada is due largely to the protection that advertisers are assured through the use of A.B.C. verified circulation. (P. L. T.)