How Magazines Cheat

Magazines often dump piles of their magazines to try and attract new readers. These issues are considered part of their circulation total and are called "verified" or public place circulation. Now the auditing agency that provides circ numbers for magazines breaks out those totals and tells everyone exactly how many copies were bought via subscription and newsstand sales and how many were just "dumped." Guess what? More and more magazines desperate to meet their base rate (the number of copies they guarantee to advertisers) dump piles of magazines as verified circ just to meet their numbers. The wild fluctuations are there to see now and advertisers aren't too happy, sasy MediaWeek.