Audit Watch – May 2007

In February, Marketing reported newly created Lexean magazine would not invoice advertisers until the Audit Bureau of Circulations Singapore (ABC) could verify its first edition had a circulation of over 100,000.

More than a month after that, the 100,000 circulation figure was confirmed by the ABC and administrator for ABC, Eddy Quek tells Marketing that it was a "special one issue audit for a specific purpose required by the media owner and their advertisers".

Lexean kept its word and has proceeded to invoice advertisers but Quek points out advertisers should understand that audited publications are listed with their average net circulation over specified periods to allow comparability of circulation data -- Lexean is not there yet.

"The question now is, what is the circulation numbers that Lexean is committing to the advertisers for their subsequent issues and can they maintain their circulation and will advertisers hold them to their numbers?" he said.

When asked whether Lexean would be audited, GM for Viscion Media Group, Holman Chin says, "an official audit can only be conducted six months after the release of our first issue". However, Chin strongly supports the practice of auditing.

"The topic of auditing has been long overdue as we find ourselves in a ‘don't ask, don't tell' industry -- we expected circulation audits would be common practice as in countries such as the US, and especially in a country such as Singapore where transparency is the law," he said.