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Dear BPA Worldwide Member: In spite of rocky global economy, BPA Worldwide counted fiscal year 2008-2009 (ended June 30) as a successful one. While BPA’s business-to-business publication and consumer magazine membership felt the brunt of the industry’s downtown, our newspaper and interactive web audit business played an integral part of this year’s success, as did our organization’s ongoing commitment to providing you—our customer—with the best possible service. At fiscal year-end, BPA’s global print members (b-to-b, consumer and newspaper) stood at 2,254—down 7.9% from 2,448 print titles in June 2008. However, websites having signed up to be part of our new BPA Interactive tool totaled 440—up nearly 1200%! At the same time, newspaper membership increased globally 32% to 149 media properties. BPA will keep you up-to-date regarding interactive media measurement with our periodic e-mail newsletters or BPA Blog entries. I encourage any feedback you might have on this or any other BPA product. Below, we have reported on some of the accomplishments within BPA’s product lines during fiscal year 2008-2009. While we are very proud of the past year’s achievements, BPA, industry-owned organization, will not rest in its continued quest to provide media audits of unsurpassed rigor, objectivity, accuracy, transparency and timeliness—all done to industry set standards. Please take a few moments to note some of the BPA’s Print, Interactive and Events teams achievements in the past year. As always, I welcome your comments and feedback. Sincerely, Sincerely, 
Glenn Hansen Click here for year-end reports on BPA Interactive and BPA Events. B-to-B and consumer applications steady in fiscal 2008-09BPA Worldwide saw applications from a total of 68 business publications and 66 consumer magazines globally between July 2008 and June 2009. Forty-seven of the 68 business applications are based in North America (47 US, 8 Canada), while 40 of BPA’s 66 consumer applications worldwide are based in North America (27 US, 13 Canada). Globally, BPA’s business publication members and applicants for the fiscal year 2008-09 totaled 1,790 titles; consumer magazine members and applicants totaled 450. BPA’s lineup of business and consumer applicants in fiscal 2008-2009 included:
Advertiser reach-out program, BuySafeMedia, continues to draw support from media industry
Between January and February 2009, BPA launched a successful banner campaign to further promote the site. Traffic nearly doubled in the first week of the campaign and increased by another 40% in the second week. Other elements of the program included:
We have organized the b-to-b marketplace into 34 major industry classifications and have publisher representation in all of them. Future plans include rolling the program out to the consumer and online arenas. Buoyed by the success in the US, BPA is now in the process of exporting the buysafemedia.com campaign to our international markets, including UK/Europe, Middle East and Asia. CANADA Joint industry body moves newspaper measurement forward: rules changes announced
Concurrent with the industry moving measurement forward, membership in the Canadian Circulation Audit Board (CCAB), the Canadian division of BPA, grew. CCAB’s membership consists of the majority of print media in every category—daily and community newspapers, consumer magazines and business publications. Entering this new era whereby Canada’s newspaper industry is poised to compete on equal terms with all other media platforms, it is important to report all of the positive changes made for the newspaper industry and also provide CCAB’s vision for the industry’s future. In December 2008, a joint industry body was formed under the auspices of CCAB. The Canadian Newspaper Advisory Board (CNAB) is comprised of 10 media buying representatives from the following companies: • BBDO Toronto These buyers were joined by seven media owners: The structure and operation of this Advisory Board continuously demonstrates CCAB’s commitment to reflect unique Canadian perspectives on the future of the newspaper industry. This Advisory Board represents a cross-section of the Canadian newspaper industry with five constituents – paid and non-paid daily newspapers, community newspapers, advertisers, and agencies. This joint industry body’s process provides Canada with flexibility and control aimed at setting a Canadian standard. A clean, simple audit format is the end product which will enable buyers and sellers to make more informed decisions relative to managing their businesses. This group of buyers and owners worked cooperatively and revised the newspaper audit system to produce a better solution for the market. Both media buyers and advertisers have noted CCAB’s changes will have positive effects on the industry. "The Canadian newspaper industry is a unique marketplace,” said Ross Marin, President, The Marketing and Communications Network. “We are pleased to see that CCAB has responded to the needs and concerns of the media buyers and provided real solutions. CCAB's consolidation of paid and non-paid circulation allows agencies and advertisers to make buying decisions based upon data that is accurate and relative to the market." Mary Crozier, Canadian Tire’s Lead Planner, Database Marketing & Dealer Advertising, added, "We applaud CCAB's move to break out reporting days by every daily newspaper—not just the major metros. As a national retailer that serves both large and small markets throughout Canada, we can now see every daily newspaper's circulation—no matter the size—for all days of the week rather than a weekly average that may not show us the true quality of circulation." "Over the past year, our relationship with CCAB has developed nicely—the Canadian Newspaper Advisory Board has worked through a number of tough issues, resulting in outcomes that satisfy both publishers and buyers,” explained Sandy MacLeod, Vice President, Consumer Marketing, Toronto Star. “This type of collaboration surely sets us up for success in the future." Click here to view the complete set of rules amendments.
CCAB releases audited circulation data for Canada’s three largest newspaper publishing groups
On March 24, 2009, CCAB released the results of comprehensive annual circulation audits for 43 daily newspaper members including three of the nation’s largest newspaper publishing groups: Sun Media, Torstar Corporation and Transcontinental Media, as well as six non-audited reports for bi-annual audit members. CCAB released data for an additional nine dailies on April 27 bringing the count to 52 Canadian dailies that released 12-month circulation data. Click here to view circulation data from all 52 dailies. The initial release—timed to coincide and correlate with the 2008 Newspaper Audience Databank (NADbank) results that were released the following day—included circulation data for Canada’s largest circulation daily newspaper, as well as 16 major metro dailies for markets such as Toronto, Calgary, Vancouver, Montreal, Ottawa, Edmonton, Quebec and Newfoundland, as well as 27 other smaller market dailies. This is the first year that the three publishing powerhouses have had their circulation audits conducted by CCAB/BPA under new standards developed under the auspices of the Canadian Newspaper Advisory Board (CNAB), a joint industry body composed of 10 advertiser/media buyer representatives and seven publisher representatives. “We’re very pleased to be able to present our findings for 43 daily newspapers simultaneously, and in keeping with NADbank,” said Tim Peel, Vice President of CCAB/BPA Worldwide. “This mandate was given to us by the advertisers and publishers of the Canadian Newspaper Advisory Board in early 2008 because it would allow media buyers to make more informed decisions when considering these publications for their advertising investments.” The audit results of Canada’s largest circulation daily newspaper and flagship of the Torstar group, The Toronto Star, showed an average total circulation of just over 3 million copies a week, with Saturday as the highest circulation day of the week with an average of 608,001 copies. “One of the early tasks the CNAB asked of CCAB was to simplify the audit report for both advertisers and publishers,” said Sandy MacLeod, Vice President of Consumer Marketing and Strategy for the Toronto Star. “Studies in cities and towns in both the United States and Canada show clearly that while quality circulation programs deliver readers, there is a difference in readership habits and demographics by consumers who pay directly for the newspaper versus those who receive it free from the publisher or sponsored by a third party. The result was two categories (by price point) for newspapers paid for by the consumer and another for all other copies. It made total sense to group third party sponsored copies and free in one category. It has resulted in simplicity for all.” Sun Media’s flagship, the Toronto Sun, showed an average total circulation of almost 1.4 million copies a week, with Sunday as the highest circulation day of the week with an average of 319,499. “We’re very pleased with our performance under the new auditing rules established by the CNAB,” said Steve Angelevski, Corporate Vice President, Reader Sales and Service at Sun Media. Transcontinental Media’s top performer, The Telegram, showed a total circulation of over 195,000 copies a week, with Saturday as the highest circulation day of the week with an average of 42,740. “This is a time of rapid change in our industry and in our communities," said Charles Stacey, Publisher of The Telegram and Group Publisher of Transcontinental Media’s operations in Newfoundland and Labrador. “Reading habits and the means by which the public gathers information is changing. We will continue to evolve with these changes and provide the information and content relevant to our readers in the formats and on the traditional and non-traditional platforms they desire. Through this change we will continue to partner with our advertising clients, through the CNAB, to ensure they are provided with accurate and relevant audience reach information.” Because this was the first year that the circulation audits for the three publishing groups have been conducted by CCAB, and due to the significant process changes implemented by the CNAB, a live webinar was held shortly after the release to explain the 2008 results and major differences between this year’s circulation statements and the previous reports not conducted by CCAB. EUROPE BPA and the UK’s association of B2B agencies formalize relationship through associate memberships
BPA and abba, the UK-based Association of B2B Agencies, announced in June plans to formalize their relationship by exchange of Associate Membership. The two not-for-profit organizations in June conferred mutual associate membership status which will provide abba member agencies with access to BPA’s library of circulation reports as well as its collection of media measurement tools and educational services. In the UK, BPA has particular experience in auditing business-to-business media within the technical sector, as well as media with an international reach in both audience and advertising. These data resources include circulation data on all print titles audited by BPA, as well as web traffic data. The BPA Interactive tool, utilizing Nielsen Online’s tagging technology, addresses the growing market need to enable audited print circulation and audited web traffic data to be concurrently reported to better demonstrate a brand’s overall reach. “The prospect of a relationship with abba is very attractive to us,” explained Stuart Wilkinson, BPA Worldwide’s Managing Director for EMEA. “BPA is a globally recognized specialist in business-to-business media auditing and so a relationship with the leading community of B2B agency professionals in the UK will prove mutually beneficial.” John Stanton, Chairman of abba, which supports agencies and client marketers that work in B2B marketing and communications by providing a platform from which to promote their businesses, exchange ideas and best practices, saw similar benefits in the relationship. “We see a great opportunity for our members to increase their understanding of media metrics and audits and provide more value to our clients’ media needs through our association with BPA. We are delighted to be associate members of BPA and look forward to a rewarding relationship.”
MIDDLE EAST Number of Middle East titles to be audited exceeds 100 for the first time
The company now either audits or has applications for membership from media owners in Jordan, Lebanon, Bahrain, Oman and Saudi Arabia, as well as the United Arab Emirates and expects to soon sign up its first titles in Qatar and Kuwait. “One interesting aspect of this development is that we are seeing media owners in the region broaden their understanding of how an audit can help their brand which is leading to more interest in interactive and event audits, as well as conventional print auditing,” commented Stuart Wilkinson, BPA’s Managing Director for Europe, Middle East & Africa. “We expect this to gain momentum as our recently announced, near-real time web auditing service within the cost of an existing print audit, begins to come on stream.” (Click here for more information.) Wilkinson believes that buyer demand is one of the reasons behind the way in which media owners in the region have recognized the value of independent auditing. “From the outset there has been a move led by international and regional advertisers, supported particularly by local offices of international agencies, to put this dynamic media industry onto a comparable footing with the rest of the world in order to help it attract a larger slice of incoming advertising revenue,” he said. “The media owners have responded to this demand and deserve considerable credit for the progress that has been made.” The century landmark comes less than six months after a case study of the CASTOR initiative, the region’s Circulation Audit Steering Organisation Market, showed demand for media owners in the UAE to have their titles independently audited had “passed the point of no return”. (Click here for more information.) “Our experience in the Middle East confirms what we have seen elsewhere,” explained Glenn Hansen, President and CEO, BPA Worldwide. “Market forces eventually hold sway and demand for audits overcomes vested interests, special arrangements and anything which gets in the way of the most informed and effective way of deploying an advertising budget.” “BPA has embraced the importance of adapting to the particular social and cultural needs of the region,” Hansen continued, “but, crucially, has also remained firm in its insistence that international standards are adhered to in order to give the region credibility in the eyes of international and global advertisers.” |
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Fiscal 2008-09 was one of great promise as Canada’s newspaper industry took a number of important and far-reaching steps to ensure a unique marketing position for the foreseeable future. 
BPA in October 2008 reported the number of print titles to be audited in the Middle East has surpassed the 100 barrier for the first time, with the drive toward accountability extending out from Dubai and reaching all areas of the region.