Circulation managers
eye ABC auditor

An Editor & Publisher story recounts the dramatic arrest of several key Newsday circulation staff in the continuing unraveling of that newspaper's huge circulation fraud. Most interesting to observers of media metrics issues is the fact that the Audit Bureau of Circulation seems to have actually been doing a pretty thorough job of keeping an eye on Newsday. It sent representatives to watch over newspaper sales, right down to the newsstands. What tripped them up, federal prosecutors allege, was a deliberately orchestrated, widespread con operation that recruited Newsday employees and others to pretend to be paper buyers when the auditors showed up.

Initial criticisms of ABC that surfaced when the circulation exaggerations first came to light now seem a bit unfair, as it is hard to blame them for getting fleeced in the face of what was allegedly tens of people acting in concert to create a false reality for visiting auditors. Reading the account almost brings chords of The Sting to mind, playing in the background.

As print buyers tend to ignore whether or not people actually read the magazines and newspapers that they buy based on guaranteed circulation figures, there is a motive for dishonest circulation managers to exploit this irrational market element for profit. In a medium in which ad efficiency goes largely unmeasured the potential for shenanigans remains rather high. To prevent another Newsday-class fraud, the ABC auditors clearly can't rely on what they see at the newsstand. To take away the motive and opportunity, they'll have to start measuring not just how many copies get sold, but how many are actually read by real people.