ABC has changed its policy so that it is no longer mandatory for members to have their online traffic figures published at least once every 12 months, though it will remain an industry recommendation.
The decision was made after a meeting in February with JICWEBS, the industry body that defines the auditor's standards in measuring web traffic.
"In June 2010, JICWEBS agreed that it had a remit to encourage companies to be certified, not a legal requirement," Martyn Gates, an executive director at ABC said in a statement. "It agreed that JICWEBS’ recommendation is for annual publication."
It is now 13 months since audited ABCes were published for the Sun and the Times, following a request from News International that that its details were withheld after the introduction of a paywall around the Times and Sunday Times.
The last report from the titles is for February 2010, so no independently verified figures exist for the Times since the paywall went up last summer. Last month, News International claimed 79,000 digital subscribers to the Times and the Sunday Times, which combines readers of the two titles on the iPad, the Kindle and online.
FT.com withdrew from the public ABCe audit last May but is still a member of ABC.
ABCs and ABCes, which are reported separately but last month were merged in the way they are managed, are closely watched by advertisers as the industry standard for monitoring circulations and web traffic.
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