Subscriptions and News Clippings: Expenditures and Related Information Reported by Federal Organizations

Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on executive branch expenditures for both subscriptions and news clippings operations in fiscal year (FY) 1996, focusing on: (1) the number of subscription copies of selected major newspapers that are normally used to prepare news clippings products; (2) the employee benefits reported from subscriptions and news clippings products; (3) whether guidance is provided to employees about procuring subscriptions and producing and distributing news clippings products; and (4) whether the departments and agencies have made or plan to make changes to improve their subscriptions procurement processes and news clippings operations. Because of the broad scope and relatively short timeframe for completing the review, GAO did not independently verify the accuracy of the information provided.