The Audit Bureau of Circulations is reorganising its ABC print and ABCe digital elements into a single organisational strand to better reflect the changing shape of the publishing industry.
The change won’t affect the way figures are presented. The national press will continue to have separate auditing of print and online audience figures for instance.
However, in a separate move – from August magazine publishers will be able to have print and online figures published on the same ABC certificate. The newspaper industry has yet to agree this change.
ABC said print remained its bedrock but it now made 30 per cent of its revenue auditing digital publications, therefore integrating its two distinct strands would ‘better complement and serve’the industry’s increasingly multi-platform needs.
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Under the new organisational structure Richard Foan, currently managing director of ABCe, will now be group executive director of communication and innovation across the newly unified ABC.
ABC said the decision to reorganise into a single organisation comes after 12 months of planning – it will also lead to a relaunch of its website.
Jerry Wright, chief executive of ABC and president of IFABC, said: ‘As the media industry has developed with increasing emphasis on digital media, so have we. ABC’s re-organisation will further integrate our expertise across print and digital disciplines, making it easier for our clients to do business with us.
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‘ABC remains committed to ensuring decision makers – including advertisers, digital traders, media owners and their clients – have access to comparable and transparent data. We continue to seek to inspire market confidence through our certification.
‘What’s important is ABC is governed by the industry, for the industry. Our brand provides a carefully managed stamp of trust throughout the media world.
‘We exist to help the industry trade effectively and efficiently by providing comparable, transparent and accountable data to industry agreed standards.
‘Evolving our business now will strengthen our position within the industry, which will benefit all our members, now and in the future.”
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