Restate AAM History

The Restate AAM History report identifies subscribers whose AAM history needs to be restated and creates a suspended batch of draw adjustments to change their AAM history. The restate type selected determines how the restating is done:

  • If the restate type is “Qualified Requested,” the draw adjustments will subtract draw from the old AAM column and add it to the new AAM column. If a qualified/requested subscriber receives the paper for fewer than 12 calendar weeks before permanently stopping or requesting a billing change that moves them to a new AAM column, newspapers are required to change the AAM history associated with that subscriber and restate him/her as having been “qualified/targeted.”

  • If the restate type is “Digital,” draw will be subtracted from the subscriber’s current AAM column and added to the Unpaid column. Digital/print hybrid and bundled subscriptions have different standards for restatement. See Circulation FAQ #104: ABC Rules for Digital/Print Hybrid and Bundled Subscriptions for information about how these subscriptions are counted by AAM.

  • If the restate type is “Add Qualified Digital Access,” draw will be added for route or mail subscribers who also have digital access history. A Business Rule— Which delivery schedule should be used when running Restate AAM History to add qualified digital access draw? (AAM section), identifies the delivery schedule for which the draw will be added.

Digital draws will only be restated if the subscriber’s rate code has a Digital Restate Type of “All Digital” or “One Digital”. “All Digital” allows all digital subscriptions having the rate code to be restated for AAM. “One Digital” pertains only to combos and will track digital AAM history under a single digital edition. See FAQ #118: AAM Reporting for Combo Digital Draws for information on how digital draw for combos with multiple online editions can be reported under a single edition.

If you plan to use the Restate AAM History report, you should set up a draw adjustment code that will be used specifically for these draw adjust batches (set the Return? field to “no,” Authorized? to “no,” and Adjust AAM History? to “yes”), and then set the Business Rule, Which draw adjustment code should be used when creating draw adjustments to restate AAM history? (AAM section), to the new draw adjust code.

Warning!

Never run this program more than once for the same product/date range combination. Running the program a second time, and then accepting the duplicate batch of draw adjustments it creates, will cause the AAM history figures to be wrong.

“Best Deal” AAM Restating

“Best deal” AAM restating is used when the restate type is “Digital.” To comply with AAM rules for paid/qualified circulation, three access intervals can be specified:

  • Largest Access Interval—A subscriber must access the digital product at least once every 30 days to avoid having their draw restated. Only one digital product per subscriber, per calendar month, can be assigned to the largest access interval.

  • Next Access Interval—Once in seven days. Only one digital product per subscriber, per calendar month, can be assigned to the next access interval.

  • Smallest Access Interval—Once per day. The remainder of a subscriber’s digital subscriptions must meet this requirement.

Circulation uses a “best deal” methodology to assign digital products to these intervals in the way that requires the smallest number of days to be restated for each interval. The following example describes this methodology.

Example

A subscriber receives a combo that bundles two paid products with three free digital products, as follows:

  • Tribune—Paid product that requires no restatement.

  • Star—Costs an additional 10% over the cost of the Tribune. This product meets the incremental pricing requirement, and therefore is exempt from restatement.

  • Tribune Online—Free digital access; must meet the digital access requirements.

  • Star Online—Free digital access; must meet the digital access requirements.

  • West End—Free digital access; must meet the digital access requirements.

The three free digital products must meet the access-interval requirements to be counted as paid/qualified circulation. For the months of June and July, let’s say the subscriber accessed them as follows:

  • Tribune Online—6/20, 7/22, and 7/23. So there are two days in July, 7/20 and 7/21, that don’t meet the once in every thirty day rule for the largest access level (because the subscriber last accessed the website on 6/20).

  • Star Online—7/2 and 7/21. So there is only one day in July, July 1, that does not meet the once in every thirty day rule (the subscriber did not access this website in June).

  • West End—Never accessed. This product would not meet any access levels.

When running Restate AAM History for 7/1 through 7/31, the system will assign each access interval in the way that requires the smallest number of days to be restated for that interval. See the following table.

Product
Largest Access (1 in 30)
Next Access (1 in 7)
Smallest Access (1 in 1)

Tribune Online

2 days restated (7/20-7/21)

23 days restated (7/1-7/21 and 7/30-7/31)

29 days restated (7/1-7/21 and 7/24-7/31)

Star Online

1 day restated (7/1)

17 days restated (7/1, 7/9-7/20, 7/28-7/31)

29 days restated (7/1, 7/3-7/20, 7/22-7/31)

West End

31 days restated

31 days restated

31 days restated

The best-deal assignment for the largest access period is the Star Online with only one day of restatement. Since only one product can be assigned to each access period, the system then moves to the next access period. Between the two remaining products, the Tribune Online, with 23 days of restatement, is the best-deal assignment for the next access period. The West End, with all days needing to be restated, is assigned to the smallest access period.

Restatement is done on a per-subscriber, per-period basis, and can be performed monthly. For the most advantageous restatement, the Restate AAM History report should be run for each calendar month.

The different AAM restate scenarios are outlined in the diagram below.

Running the AAM History Report

To run the report:

  • Select Restate AAM History from the AAM menu to display the Restate AAM History window.

  • Click Add and complete the following fields.

    Field
    Type
    What to enter

    START DATE END DATE

    date

    Enter the date range for which you want to find subscribers.

    ENTRY DATE

    date

    Enter the effective date of the draw adjustments that will be created.

    RESTATE TYPE

    predefined

    Select Qualified Requested, Digital, or Add Qualified Digital Access.

    • If you select Qualified Requested, the only other available fields will be Product, Old AAM Column, and New AAM Column.

    • If you select Digital, all of the fields except Product and Old AAM Column will be available. The digital subscribers who will be selected for restating are those whose rates require AAM restating (as identified in rate setup).

    • If you select Add Qualified Digital Access, draw will be added for route or mail subscribers who also have digital access history. The only other available fields will be Product, New AAM Column, # Days, and Authentication. A Business Rule, Which delivery schedule should be used when running Restate AAM History to add qualified digital access draw? (AAM section), identifies the delivery schedule for which the draw will be added.

    PRODUCT

    setup

    Enter the product ID.

    OLD AAM COLUMN

    setup

    Identify the subscribers’ current AAM column (i.e., the column that will be changed).

    NEW AAM COLUMN

    setup

    Identify the new AAM column used to restate AAM history.

    Access Intervals (# TIMES and # DAYS)

    LARGEST ACCESS INTERVAL

    NEXT ACCESS INTERVAL

    SMALLEST ACCESS INTERVAL

    integer (3)

    integer (3)

    integer (3)

    For each access interval, indicate the number of times in the number of days that a subscriber must access this digital subscription to be immune from restatement.

    For example, AAM currently defines the largest access interval as once every 30 days, so you would enter “1” in # Times and “30” in # Days for the Largest Access Interval.

    The next access interval is currently defined as once every seven days, and the smallest as once per day. See the discussion of Best Deal AAM Restating above for more information.

    AUTHENTICATION, EDITION

    setup

    If Restate Type is “Add Qualified Digital Access”, select the authentication control that should be used to determine if the subscriber has digital access.

    Also select the edition to use when creating the draw adjustments.

    PAID PRODUCT

    setup

    Enter the ID of the product that is considered the paid product. For a home delivery/digital combo, this is the ID of the home-delivered product.

    For a digital/digital combo, this is the product that has been designated as the paid product and is the primary product in Combo setup.

    PAID PRODUCT DELIVERY METHOD

    predefined

    Indicate whether the paid product is a Digital or Non-Digital (i.e., home-delivered) product.

    Digital Product Information

    DIGITAL PRODUCT [1-9]

    setup

    Specify the product ID of the digital product to be restated.

    DELIVERY SCHEDULE

    setup

    Enter the delivery schedule(s) that are used to identify digital subscribers. For publications in which the home-delivered and digital editions share the same product ID, users have been instructed to use the delivery schedule as a means to distinguish between the home-delivered and digital editions.

    A product/delivery schedule combination can be used for only one digital product.

    AUTHENTICATION

    setup

    Select the authentication control ID, which defines when print subscribers have access to digital content.

    These are defined using the Authentication Control option in iServices Setup.

  • Click OK and then Continue to create the draw adjustments.

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