152 entries found.
| ABC | The Audit Bureau of Circulations (see “Audit Bureau”) |
| ACORN | A system of classifying UK households into 56 demographic groups |
| Acquisition costs | The total cost of obtaining new subscribers. This would typically include promotion costs, return postage cost, invoicing and premium costs, and the cost of free copies despatched before bad payers are cut-off. Typically, each source group has different acquisition costs |
| Active subscription | A subscription receiving copies. There are two types: active paid (which continues until subscriptions expire without renewing) and active unpaid (which occurs when subscribers have taken out subscriptions on credit or “bill-me” offers and before they have paid their subscription or have been cut-off for non-payment) |
| Actives | The number of active subscriptions (as opposed to lapsed, suspended or cancelled subscriptions) on the file, issue-by-issue |
| Adds | New names added to the subscription file, and particularly used with Controlled Circulation titles |
| Advance renewal | Renewals generated by promotional efforts sent out well in advance of publishers’ regular renewal series (also known as “Early-bird renewal”) |
| Advertiser copies | Each advertiser in a given issue is normally sent a copy of that issue to check the advert |
| Advertising driven publication | A publication that derives more than half of its sales revenues from advertising (see “Circulation driven publication”) |
| Affinity programmes | Joint marketing programmes carried out by publishers and their partners (such as financial services and travel companies). Publishers promote subscriptions to their partners’ customers, and partners promote their products and services to subscribers |
| Agent-sold subscriptions | Paid subscriptions sold by commissionable, outside agencies. There are five types of subscription agents: traditional (Swets-Blackwell etc); specialist (Nordic Subscription Services, Repromotie etc); stamp-sheet (PCH etc); affinity (ADLP, Synapse etc); and electronic (subscription.co.uk etc) |
| Alternative delivery | Delivery of subscription copies by private carriers outside the Royal Mail postal system |
| Ancillary products | Any non-magazine or non-newspaper products or services sold by publishers to readers. Examples include books, conferences and branded merchandise |
| Arrears | Another word for grace copies |
| Audit Bureau | An independent organisation which audits the claimed circulation of its publisher members on behalf of advertisers and advertising agencies (eg ABC, BPA) |
| Automatic renewal | Subscriptions sold with Direct Debit or Continuous Credit Card payments which renew automatically until the subscriber cancels. (also known as “Continuous renewal” and “Negative option”) |
| Back issues | Copies delivered to a new subscriber which are older than the current issue |
| Backdating (or Back-starting) | Starting new subscriptions with back issues rather than with the current issue. This can be requested by the subscriber or could be initiated by the publisher to increase circulation volumes within an ABC audit period |
| Bad pay | Those people who respond to new subscription promotions offering credit terms (eg. "send no money now...") and who fail to settle their accounts. Their subscriptions are then cancelled by the publisher |
| Bad pay copies | Copies sent to a non-paying credit subscriber before they are cut-off for non-payment |
| Basic rate | A magazine’s standard, published subscription price, usually for one year |
| Billing cost | Cost of billing credit subscriptions acquired through “bill-me” offers |
| Bill-me offer | A new subscription offer which does not require payment in advance of copies being despatched (see also “Credit subscription”) |
| Bind-ins | Another word for bound inserts |
| Bound inserts | Subscription promotion cards bound into each issue of a magazine. Also known as “bind-ins” or “blow-ins” |
| BPA International | An audit bureau mainly for business-to-business publications (see “Audit Bureau”) |
| BRE’s | Business rely envelopes, often used in new subscription promotions to increase response |
| Bulk subscriptions | Multiple subscriptions sold to one customer, usually at a discount. Special audit regulations apply to these sales |
| Bundle | Subscriptions to two or more different publications sold at a special combined rate (also known as “Product bundle”) |
| Caging | (An old concept connected with cash processing). The department within a fulfilment operation which processes incoming mail containing cheques and credit card payments |
| Cancel | Discontinuing an active subscription before expiry, usually at the request of the subscriber |
| Charter subscription | A term often used in the US to describe subscriptions taken out at the launch of a new publication, usually at a discounted rate |
| Cheshire labels | Non-adhesive 4-up address labels printed on computer listing paper and fixed to magazine wrappers by a special “Cheshire” machine |
| Circulation driven publication | A publication that derives more than half of its sales revenues from circulation (see “Advertising driven publication”) |
| Circulation modelling | Using a PC and spreadsheet package to calculate the financial consequences of different circulation development strategies |
| Cold mail | Direct mail to people whose names and addresses are obtained from external mailing lists |
| Commission | A payment to a subscription agency, usually a percentage amount of the subscription price. The agency collects from the subscriber, deducts the commission and remits the balance to the publisher |
| Compiled list | A mailing list generated from name and address records found in directories, newspapers, membership records etc. Unlike subscriber lists and direct marketing sales lists, people in compiled lists have not shown any preferences for buying products through direct marketing |
| Continuous renewal (or Continuous service) | Subscriptions sold with Direct Debit or Continuous Credit Card payments which renew automatically until the subscriber cancels. (also known as “Automatic renewal” and “Negative option”) |
| Control | In subscription promotion tests, the basic package against which other promotions are compared |
| Controlled circulation | Trade and technical publications sent free-of-charge to specific groups of readers. Recipients are selected by publishers on the basis of their demographics (job title, industry type etc) and are subject to special audit regulations |
| Conversion | Confusingly, this word is often used in three ways: any first-time renewal (where it is also known as “sensitive renewal”); the process of converting Controlled Circulation readers into paid subscribers; and the process of converting Forced-Free Trial readers into paid subscribers |
| Cost per paid order | The ratio of the promotion cost relative to the number of paid orders (promotion cost / paid orders) |
| Cover wrap | Also called a “wrap”, “wrapper” or carrier sheet”. A sheet of paper attached to both sides of a magazine and normally containing the mailing label. Often used for promotional purposes such as notifying subscribers of their final issue before expiry (see “Outsert”) |
| CPM | Promotion cost per thousand (also known as “CPT”) |
| CPO | Cost per order or, more precisely, marketing cost per subscription order |
| Credit order | A new subscription order which does not require payment to be made at the time of sale. The subscriber is billed for the subscription price and received copies straightaway, before the payment is received |
| Credit subscriptions | Copies served on subscriptions sold on credit through “Bill-me” offers. If payment is received, the copies delivered become paid copies. If not, they are considered unpaid copies and written-off as part of the calculation of promotion profitability |
| Cross-sell | A promotion method in which customers of one product are offered another product, often at a discounted rate |
| Deferred income | (Also known as “Subscription liability”) Subscription payments made by subscribers to publishers in advance of issues being sent, and accounted for in the publisher’s Balance Sheets. After each issue is released a proportion of deferred income is transferred to the publisher’s Profit & Loss account (see also “Earned income”). The accounting is as follows: Earned income + Deferred income = Total subscription price. |
| Deletes | Existing names deleted from the subscription file, and particularly used with Controlled Circulation titles |
| Demographics | Characteristics of a group of readers. These could include age, income, gender and household type (for consumer titles); or job title, company size and industry sector (for business-to-business titles) |
| Direct request | Readers of controlled circulation magazines who have verified (in writing, by telephone or through the web) that they are qualified to receive the publication free of charge and that they want to receive it |
| Donor | The purchaser of a gift subscription |
| Draw | The number of newsstand copies that are distributed to wholesalers each issue |
| Dupes (or Duplicates) | Two copies of the same subscriber record, differing only in minor details such as flat number, company name etc, and often occurring when renewal orders are erroneously re-entered as new subscriptions |
| Early-bird renewal | Renewals generated by promotional efforts sent out well in advance of publishers’ regular renewal series (also known as “Advance renewal”) |
| Earned income | The proportion of the total subscription price which is booked to the publisher’s Profit & Loss account, issue by issue (also known as “Revenue release”). The accounting is as follows: Earned income + Deferred income = Total subscription price |
| Effort | Any individual promotion to a subscriber or prospect such as an insert card, off-page-ad or renewal letter. Renewal and billing series both contain several efforts |
| Expire date (or expiry date) | The date on which the last issue of a subscription contract is delivered |
| Expire(s) | As a verb, what happens when a subscription reaches the end of the contract without renewing. As a noun, a group of subscriptions whose contracts terminate at a certain date (eg “the January 2002 expires”). |
| Forced-free trials (or FFTs) | A short-term, free subscription sent without request to targeted groups of readers with the goal of converting them into paid subscribers. Most often used by newsletter publishers |
| Free list | Free copies given to selected readers (also known as “Comp list”) |
| Frequency | The time period between successive issues of a publication such as weekly, monthly or quarterly |
| FSI | Free-standing insert, such as a product brochure, inserted into or packed with the publication |
| Fulfilment | An all-inclusive term referring to the numerous tasks involved with creating, updating and maintaining subscriber lists – which include payment processing, subscription accounting, label production, renewals, circulation auditing and marketing reporting. Fulfilment can be carried out in-house or sub-contracted to an external service bureau (also known as “Subscription fulfilment”) |
| Future starts | New subscriptions, entered with instructions to deliver the first issue at a specified date in the future |
| Gift subscriptions | Subscriptions paid for by someone other than the recipient |
| Giro | A payment method widely used in continental Europe. Giro accounts are set up at banks or post offices and funds are electronically transferred from one account to another |
| Gone-aways | Returned mailings when the address on the envelope is no longer valid |
| Grace copies (or gracing) | Copies delivered free of charge to subscribers after they have expired. ABC regulations define how grace copies can be counted as valid circulation |
| Gross response | The total number of prospects who order a subscription from a given promotion, irrespective of whether or not they are paid for. The number is expressed as a percentage of total promotions mailed (see also “Net response”) |
| Group subscriptions | Subscriptions sold in quantity to companies or organisations |
| Hard offer | A new subscription offer which does not treat the first few issues as a no-obligation trial |
| House lists | A database of current and previous customers such as subscribers, book buyers and conference delegates |
| Identified renewals | Renewals resulting from the publisher’s regular renewal series. Renewal orders from promotions other than the renewal series are called “Unidentified renewals” |
