Lies, damn lies and statistics...

The calls and complaints began on Monday last week after the latest quarterly ABCs were released for newspapers and magazines (January to June 2006) and the message boards hummed with nasty anonymous posts from rival publishers querying each other's interpretation of their latest circulation figures.

Nothing out of the ordinary there... this happens every ABC release as newspaper bosses and magazine moguls put their own spin on their figures, often to the point of the ridiculous as even a 'point zero zero one' of a percentage increase (i.e., two more readers) is lauded - all in the name of trying to squeeze advertising out of tight fisted media planners.

The difference this year, is that in order to be more transparent and provide more up-to-date info, thereby lessening margins of error, over and under reporting of figures and generally tightening up the rules, the ABC is now reporting circulation data quarterly, as well as putting all data out in the open for all members and associate members to see: from actual sold copies, subscriptions, to bulk distribution, bulk free distribution, free copies - you name it.

Juvenile

But this didn't stop the publishers of teen girl magazines, Seventeen and Saltwater Girl (SWG) from behaving like adolescents themselves and fighting about their respective press release interpretations of the latest ABCs in emails to the media and through public commentary on the Bizcommunity.com message boards (the more defamatory were obviously removed by us).

SWG, published by Atoll Media, was unhappy because Seventeen, published by 8 Ink Media, combined its English and Afrikaans circulation figures (41 933, English and 8 703, Afrikaans into one total figure of 50 636 - January to June 2006), thereby claiming leadership of the teen girl market over that of SWG. Seventeen was unhappy that SWG in turn claimed leadership of this market with its ABC of 45 360.

Comments flew back and forth on the Bizcommunity.com message boards with indignant emails from the publishers and bloggers joining in the fray: "Real fishy... dishonest and misleading... retraction!... clarify please..." were some of the phrases bandied about.

On a point of order: Seventeen was incorrect in terms of the ABC rules in combining its two circulations, as in this case, the frequency of their English and Afrikaans issues is not the same, so it is not allowed to combine them into one official circulation figure.

But what makes it even more juvenile, is that these two publishers are comparing apples with eggs, not apples with oranges, as both have varied publishing frequency with their products and cannot, strictly, then compare their circulation figures. SWG comes out fewer times a year than Seventeen, and Seventeen publishes its Afrikaans issues fewer times a year than its English issues.

As ABC general manager Charles Beiles points out: "It's not so much the total circulation figure that counts anyway, but how it is made up... we are trying to give the media planner additional information to try assist with planning. What they need to look up is the total make up of the circulation of each publication - not just the total figure."

To foster learning and weed out misconceptions in the marketplace about the ABCs, workshops are being planned by the ABC.

Latest on the saga is that the big brother of South African publishing, Media24, which actually owns a stake in both publishers, Atoll Media and 8 Ink Media - making this spat even more brand-damaging and bizarre - apparently called a time-out internally and told both publishers to sort it out.

One thing is for sure, it's never a dull day on the Bizcommunity.com news desk!