B2B/farm media publisher’s statement filing

Learn to navigate AAM’s filing tool for business and farm publications.

Getting Started

The left-hand menu has three sections:

• General Information and Circulation Data
• Analysis
• Review and Submit

Each section contains information about the data in each paragraph of your AAM publisher’s statement. Let’s take a look at the sections of the tool.

Publication Information

This section asks you to declare whether you are reporting print and digital circulation, as well as qualified paid, nonpaid (where applicable) and frequency. You can also update publisher and contact information, field served and the definition of qualified recipient. When completed, click the Save or Save and Continue button at the bottom of the page. 

 

Issue by Issue

The Issue-by-Issue section collects data for each reported distribution category and automatically populates six-month averages for each. The output for the Issue by Issue paragraph will be in the qualified paid and qualified nonpaid summary format only.

To complete the Issue by Issue section:

1. Review the assigned calendar dates for each issue. This field will be prepopulated if the issue name contains a month or date. These dates are used for ordering the issues chronologically. If a publication does not have a date (i.e., winter issue), a calendar date needs to be assigned for that issue.
2. To add or delete a row, click on the plus or red X icons. 
3. Indicate which issue is the analyzed issue by checking the Analyzed radio button next to the applicable issue. Enter data for each reported distribution category by issue. Note: Don’t forget to enter your nonqualified circulation. 
   
   
4. Reporting qualified paid distribution should be net, meaning returns have been deducted from paid distribution.
5. If you are reporting a special issue, check the Special Issue box next to the appropriate issue. Special issue(s) will not be calculated in the six-month averages for qualified paid and qualified nonpaid sections. Note: Six-month averages appear at the bottom of the grid. 
   
   
6. The Show Totals button allows you to view totals by paid and nonpaid.
   
   
7. Check the Not reporting adds/remove box if you are not reporting optional adds or removes.
   
   
8. Instead of entering data directly into the filing tool, you may upload the issue-by-issue data section as a CSV file. To download an example file, click on the Download Excel Example Click the CSV Specifications link for instructions on setting up your CSV file.

Issue by Issue Overall Example:

Regional and Demographic Editions

This section is only for reporting editions in which advertising was sold separately. Each edition will report the applicable paid and/or qualified nonpaid distribution. If you do not have separate editions, please skip to the next section of the filing tool.

Business and Occupational Analysis

The Business and Occupational Analysis (BOA) takes the analyzed issue and details the paid and/or qualified nonpaid distribution by applicable business, industry, job titles, occupations or functions.

To file the BOA, click on Business & Occupational under the Analysis section. This section does not contain a data entry area but is submitted via Excel.  

Steps for submitting your analysis: Use the customized AAM template

The AAM template has been populated based on your previously filed BOA. It is formatted and cannot be changed. Any changes to the BOA format must be submitted and approved by AAM prior to the statement release. The format and graphics of your BOA in the Excel file will be the same as it appears in your printed publisher’s statement. Your file will be stored in the publisher filing tool.

1. Click on the Business & Occupational link under the Analysis section.
   
2. Download the linked template. Note: only one file should be used per publication. If you have supplemental sections within your BOA and/or an international geographic analysis, these sections will appear as separate tabs within the file.
   
3. Open the downloaded template, click on Enable Editing and save the file to your computer.
   
4. Enter the business and occupational data for the selected analyzed issue, save the file to your computer, then upload the saved filed.
   To upload the completed BOA:
   • Select the Choose File button
   • Navigate to the saved file on your computer
   • Click Open
   • Select the Upload Business & Occupational File button to upload the file
     

 

 

5.  Business & Occupational Final Step: Once you have uploaded your completed BOA file you can view it in the Business & Occupational drop down on the View Data screen. 

Age of Source (Source Analysis)

The Age of Source (Source Analysis) section examines the analyzed issue by the source of circulation and the age of that source for the qualified nonpaid distribution. Update this section with your current selected analyzed issue information. 

There are three options for reporting your age of source (source analysis) data:

1. Standard Reporting: The default option reports the age of source by the standard 1-2-3-year age analysis along with both the main source categories and the detailed sub-source categories.

2. Report by Source Type Only: Click the blue "Report by Source Type Total" button to report the age of source by the 1-2-3-year age analysis and main source categories without detailed sub-source categories.

3. Total Only (print, digital, and print & digital undup): Check the second box to report the source analysis in total only for the main source categories. This option does not include the 1-2-3-year age analysis or the detailed sub-source categories.

Engagement Analysis

This optional section reports recency of engagement instead of traditional age of source information for qualified nonpaid distribution. It replaces reporting the age of the initial recipient source for the analyzed issue by focusing on other channels where the recipient interacts such as digital editions, websites and email newsletters. You may report Age of Source, Engagement Analysis or both. If you wish to combine the reporting of qualified paid and nonpaid in the Engagement Analysis section, check the box next to Click here if you are reporting paid and nonpaid circulation in aggregate. If you choose not to report this information, check the Not Reporting box and click Save and Continue.

Mailing Address

This optional section reports how the copies in the analyzed issue were addressed. Check the Not Reporting box if you are not reporting this information. Then click Save and Continue.

Geographical Analysis

On the Geographic Analysis screen, enter the circulation for the designated analyzed issue by state and/or province. Check the box if you are reporting units. Remember to click Save often when entering your data. To view totals, click the Show Totals button. 

U.S.

Canada

There are two options for entering your publication’s geographic analysis: manually or via upload. The following instructions outline how to prepare and upload a customized geographic analysis spreadsheet to the Publisher Filing Center.

1. Complete the Publication Information in the General Information section. The tool uses this information to customize your geographic template with the proper distribution categories for your publication.

2.  Navigate to the Geographic section under Analysis. Click on Download Template and save the downloaded Excel template to your computer. 

3. Enter your publication’s geographic information into the downloaded template and then save your completed file to your system. Note: The format of the Excel file cannot be changed. However, you may cut and paste data from your Excel reports into AAM’s customized Excel file.

4. Now that you’ve saved your Excel file, go back to the Geographic section in the filing tool and click the Choose File button. Select your file and click the Upload button to populate the geographic section of the filing tool. Remember to click Save or Save and Continue at the bottom of the screen to save your uploaded data. 

5. Edits may be made either directly to the data in the geographic section or to the customized Excel template and then reuploaded to the tool.    

6. Once you are satisfied with the data in the geographic section, remember to click Save or Save and Continue. 

Prices and Optional Data

This section allows you to report price data, term data and sales channels. Please use your previous publisher’s statement as a reference. If you are not reporting the optional paragraphs within this section, check Not reporting this optional paragraph. If you are reporting qualified nonpaid circulation only, then proceed to the next section.

Notes

The Notes section is where you may further explain any circulation claimed within the previous sections. Click on the Add Notes button to see a list of all possible disclosures and add those that apply to this statement period.

Publisher Comments

Add any comments or issues about your statement processing.

Upload Images

AAM encourages you to brand your document by adding your logo and cover images. Visit the Upload Files section to submit images. Logos, cover images and web page screenshots appear in different areas of the document. Below is a summary of where each image type appears and their optimum display settings. 

Logo –  Logos appear on the front page of your document. Logos need only be submitted once to AAM, unless your logo has changed. For optimum display of your logo, the image should be a high-resolution file of at least 300 dpi in TIFF or JPEG format. 

Cover Images – Cover images appear on the front page of your document. A new cover image should be submitted each time you file with a cover date in the reporting period. For optimum display of your cover image, please submit a high-resolution file of at least 300 dpi in TIFF or JPEG format. 

Web Page Images – Web page images appear on the front page of the Consolidated Media Report. Web page images represent your cross-media reporting channels (additional print product, website, e-newsletters, mobile, etc.). There is a limit of four web page images per document, one per media channel. New web page images should be submitted each time you file, with a date in the reporting period. For optimum display of your web page images, please submit a high-resolution file of at least 300 dpi in TIFF or JPEG format. 

Other – This category is used for additional images that you wish to include in your report (i.e., sample questionnaires, maps). When using this option, please include a description of the file in the field next to the radio button (i.e., questionnaire). 

View Data

The View Data section summarizes all information entered into the filing tool and allows you to print or save a summary report.

View Snapshot

This area reflects your paragraph 1 data and Snapshot entry. If edits are necessary, please return to the General Information & Circulation Data section of the filing tool and make your corrections.

View Alerts

This section identifies any data errors. Please address all error messages before submitting your data.

Statement Submission

Once you have reviewed any alerts or errors and are ready to submit your data to AAM, enter your name, title and check the box to save your data. This serves as your certification of the data you are about to submit.

Then click the button to Submit Publisher's Statement Data to AAM. You will receive a confirmation email stating that the data has been submitted.

How to Approve or Reject Your Data Submission

Once you have submitted your data, you will receive an email from AAM stating that your data has been filed successfully. AAM will then review the data and send a follow-up email stating that your data has been approved or that it needs adjustments. If AAM approves the data, you will have an opportunity to review the data and either accept or decline your data submission.

Please note that AAM no longer sends a PDF proof of your publisher’s statement for review. Instead, you will need to follow the instructions below to appropriately review and approve or decline your recent data submission.

 

1. First you will receive an email from AAM that looks like this:

2. Click the link for the Publisher Filing Center and reenter your member number, username and password. 

3. Select Publisher’s Statement Filing from the right-hand menu and choose the most recent filing period. 

4. Once you’re in the tool, click on View Data under the Review & Submit section in the left-hand menu. 

5. If you’re satisfied with your data, return to the email and select Approve. Now your data will be released to the Media Intelligence Center and the publisher’s statement will be produced and released.

6. If you’re not satisfied with your data, return to the email and select Decline. The filing tool will reopen for you to make any adjustments. 

Questions on Filing - Contact Information

For questions or assistance, please contact AAM.