This Manual focuses on the specialized accounting requirements of the magazine industry and should prove a useful tool not only to the accountants in the industry, but also to the managers, investors and lenders who require reliable financial data about their publishing operations to make informed business decisions.

It is the MPA’s goal that this Manual will also provide a greater degree of uniformity in the accounting practices of our member publications by providing standard definitions of accounting and industry terms, as well as a general outline of a magazine publishing accounting system. The widespread use of these should facilitate comparisons among publishers.

While there are a number of income tax issues that are unique to the publishing industry, this manual does not deal with federal, state or local income taxes.

The updates and revisions have been provided by the Media Consulting Group of the accounting firm of Bay Sherman & Craig, LLP with the assistance of Hal Jaffe of Bay Sherman & Craig, LLP and Jack Craven of Media CPAS.

Most of the material has been abstracted from the book, Accounting & Finance for Publishing Companies by Peter M. Craig, published by Folio:/Red 7 Media. The book contains substantially expanded material on the information included in this Manual and additional material on income taxes and buying, selling and valuing publications.