The Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC) plans to conduct most of its newspaper and magazine audits away from publisher offices by September 2010, the organization announced today. 

Improved digital practices and technologies have made the initiative, called Audit Fast Track, a practical reality, the ABC release said.

“This simple structural change will reduce the amount of time [our clients] spend preparing for their audit; eliminate the requirement to host an auditor at their office for days or weeks at a time; increase audit turnaround times because we can begin the audit before the period even closes; and allow us to further control and predict future audit costs by removing the travel element associated with the current model,” said Mike Moran, ABC's executive vice president of audit services, in a release.        

ABC already uses a similar model for 125 newspapers and 500 periodicals. The Schaumburg, Ill.-based organization handles auditing for more than 2,200 newspaper and magazines in Canada and the U.S.

A field auditor will still visit offices for non-paid magazines, but a significant portion of those audits will be conducted off-site as well.