The decline of audited — and unaudited — circulation accuracy

 We all know in the print bureau that the old Audit Bureau of Circulation's newspaper audits have long ago gone by the boards, and that what counts as paid circulation is more and more a matter of framing and public relations.

That's true enough of a conventional newspaper with a second-class USPS permit.

But, what of a shopper, which was free, like most of them are, but gradually converted more and more of its ZIPs to paid and finished the process about 18 months ago?

I hear things about a "bulked-up" shopper in my area, which did exactly that. I would whack one-third off their circ claims now that they've gone paid. And, as far as I know, they're still on a third-class permit, so they don't have to run an annual postal statement in October on their pages.