Corruption in the magazine industry

We finally get to see directly what was always assumed - corruption in the magazine industry. One of the largest publishers - Gruner and Jahr Publishing - had TWO SETS OF BOOKS. From David Carr in the NY Times:

"The judge suggested that there will be little in the way of monetary damages in the trial over who is to blame for the demise of Rosie magazine, but there is plenty of collateral damage to the publishing industry.

Gruner & Jahr Publishing USA initiated the lawsuit against Rosie O'Donnell in part to clear its name, but opened itself up to testimony that may have significantly damaged its reputation, as well as the industry's. During the trial, it became clear that Gruner & Jahr kept two sets of books: one set tracked the actual circulation performance of the magazine, the other much more positive set was sent to the Audit Bureau of Circulations.

The price of magazine advertising is based, in large part, on those figures — and media buyers were left to wonder just how much they should trust a publisher's numbers. Documents in evidence showed that in some instances, Gruner & Jahr reported more than twice the newsstands sales that Rosie was actually achieving.

"This has been a terrible week for the magazine industry," an executive at a competing firm said last week. "Many of us are very careful in terms of our reporting and now we are going to have to defend ourselves against what these guys did."