Member Alert: Hurricane’s Impact on Magazine Distribution; Circulation Reporting of Affected Copies

BPA members are advised that, due to severe facilities damage and other problems resulting from Hurricane Katrina, the U.S. Postal Service has announced that, effective as of August 31, it is not accepting any Standard or Periodicals mail—from any source—addressed for delivery within several affected three-digit Zip Code ranges.

At minimum, the affected areas include the following 3-digit Zip Codes: 369, 393, 394, 395, 396, 700 and 701. 

However, those responsible for shipping Periodicals and Standard mail for BPA-audited publishers are advised to check the following area of the official USPS Web site frequently during this crisis, to stay updated on which Zip Code areas are affected, as well as other delivery news from the USPS in regard to the Gulf Coast region (click hyperlink below to link into this USPS Web site area):

http://www.usps.com/communications/news/serviceupdates.htm?from=bannercommunications&page=katrina

All publishers who have not suspended mailing to the affected Zip Code areas, as indicated by the USPS, should do so immediately.

FYI: The USPS is now formulating plans to address the handling of Standard and Periodicals mail already in the mailstream and addressed for delivery to the affected ZIP Code areas.

In terms of BPA circulation reporting issues on affected Periodicals copies, BPA will follow the reporting procedures we have followed in previous situations in which magazine delivery has been interrupted by natural or other catastrophes (such as flooded-out printing plants and 9/11):

Any magazines shipped on August 31, 2005 (the USPS’s official non-acceptance date) or afterward, up until the date(s) on which the USPS officially announces that it has resumed distribution of Periodicals in a given Zip Code area(s), may not be reported under the standard “Total Paid,” “Total Non-Paid Qualified” and “Total Qualified Circulation” lines of the front page of the BPA business publication and consumer magazine reports, or in the totals for affected issues/copies reported in Paragraph 2.

Rather, the affected lines as described above should be asterisked, and the report reader is to be referred to the “Additional Data” area (Paragraph 11 for business publications and Paragraph 8 for consumer magazines), where wording along the following lines should appear:

“Due to the U.S. Postal Service’s suspension of acceptance/delivery of Periodicals copies in the wake of the Hurricane Katrina disaster in the Gulf Coast region, [insert:  X #] of non-paid, qualified copies [and/or] [insert: X #] of paid copies that otherwise would have been delivered were not delivered, and are therefore not included in circulation total lines in the front-page summary statement of this report, or in affected issue totals in Paragraph 2.”

Magazine copies shipped prior to August 31, 2005 can be assumed to be in the hands of the USPS, and may therefore be included in the reporting lines described above.

BPA members with questions regarding this reporting should contact their regional Member Relations Managers. See MRM contact information on BPA’s Web site: 

www.bpaww.com/contact/member_relations.htm