Frequently Asked Questions About the AAM and BPA Merger

The two not-for-profit media auditing organizations joined forces to increase trust and assurance across media channels. Together we  plan to leverage our complementary expertise and capabilities to provide a suite of services that increases transparency and accountability in media, differentiates high quality media outlets and service providers, and allows buyers to choose quality and maximize return on media investments.

The merger creates a larger organization that will benefit AAM and BPA members on the buy and sell sides. Our goals are to:

• Maintain our high level of service at a low cost as a not-for-profit organization.
• Streamline media buying and selling through a single data destination.
• Drive better visibility for media companies, ROI for buyers and accountability for the industry through a suite of assurance services.

Initially, there are no changes to your service as either a publisher or buyer. You will continue to work with your main point of contact, and other touchpoints (e.g. audit rules, reports and data, websites) are not changing in the short term. We plan to make improvements over time. For example, we expect to create a single interface to access all AAM/BPA information.

The legal entity BPA Worldwide has been folded into the Alliance for Audited Media. Branding for AAM and BPA products and services is not changing in the short term.

The AAM board of directors has expanded from 29 to 38 directors (18 advertisers/agencies, 17 publishers, 3 advisory). The initial slate includes all current AAM and BPA directors. There are a few details to note:

• AAM Chairman Chris Black continues to serve as chairman. BPA Chairman David Adelman is now a vice chairman, representing advertisers/agencies.
• The media committees include buyer and publisher directors: News (12 directors), magazine (10 directors), B2B (10 directors) and point of care (2 directors). There is a new committee of three advisory directors.
• Directors serve three-year terms with no term limits. The next director election will be held in fall 2024.

Tom Drouillard is CEO and managing director. Rich Murphy is president.

If you have a question that is not addressed in the AAM/BPA Merger Resource Hub, please contact us.

Your client experience will not change in the short term. Now that the companies are merged, we plan make improvements over time, and we will keep you updated as we progress. For example, we plan to build a single data interface for buyers and media companies to access all omnichannel information. We also plan to build a comprehensive suite of assurance services that will benefit buyers and sellers across channels — websites, newsletters, events, print, out-of-home, podcasts and ad tech — and across compliance areas such as advertising, editorial, privacy and sustainability.

All BPA members are now AAM members with their current membership terms. The client experience is not changing in the short term. BPA members will continue to carry BPA branding on their reports. If you decide you want to change, it can be arranged. 

Audits and information distribution remain the same in the short term.

You will continue to work with your main point of contact.

There is no immediate impact to billing procedures. As the two companies integrate, there may be opportunities to realign billing cycles and streamline banking relationships. Members will be notified well in advance of any billing changes.