Preparing for October 2026: Publisher Checklist

Six months to build a process that lasts

The Political Advertising Regulation (EU 2024/900) requires print, broadcast, and outdoor publishers to verify transparency notices for every political ad they publish. For online publishers and platforms, this obligation has been in effect since October 2025. For everyone else, the deadline is October 2026.

That deadline is firm. There is no grace period, no soft launch, no transitional phase for offline publishers. When October 2026 arrives, you must have a functioning verification process in place.

This checklist gives you six concrete steps to get there. Start six months before the deadline -- around April 2026 -- and you will have time to build, test, and refine your process before it matters.

Step 1: Define your internal policy (April 2026)

Before you configure any tools, answer these questions at the organizational level:

Who is responsible for political ad verification? This could be the ad sales department, a compliance officer, the editorial desk, or a combination. For smaller publishers, it may be the editor-in-chief or the advertising manager.

What qualifies as a political ad? The regulation covers ads by political actors (parties, candidates, elected officials) and ads that could influence the outcome of an election or referendum. Your team needs clear criteria to identify political ads when they arrive.

What is your escalation path? When an ad is borderline political, who decides? When a transparency notice is incomplete, who contacts the advertiser? When an advertiser refuses to provide a notice, who makes the final call on whether to publish?

Write this down. A one-page internal policy document is enough. The goal is that every person involved knows their role and the steps to follow.

Step 2: Create intake forms (April-May 2026)

When an advertiser contacts you to place a political ad, you need to collect specific information upfront. Design an intake form or checklist that your ad sales team uses for every political ad booking:

• Advertiser name and contact details
• Transparency notice ID or URL (the advertiser's notice on The Taurus or equivalent platform)
• Sponsor name as it appears on the transparency notice
• Publication dates requested
• QR code or link to be placed on the ad

This intake form serves two purposes: it ensures you have what you need to verify the notice, and it signals to advertisers that you take verification seriously. Most advertisers will prepare accordingly once they know what you require.

Step 3: Train your team (May-June 2026)

Three groups within your organization need training:

Ad sales staff need to know:

• How to identify political advertising
• What to ask the advertiser (the intake form)
• When to escalate to the verification team

Verification staff (or whoever checks the notices) need to know:

• How to access and verify a transparency notice at ttad.eu
• What constitutes a complete notice (all mandatory fields filled)
• How to perform the plausibility check (does the sponsor match the advertiser? Is the address reasonable?)
• How to document the verification

Layout and production staff need to know:

• How to integrate QR codes into ad layouts
• Minimum QR code size for reliable scanning (15mm)
• How to test that the QR code links to the correct notice

A single training session per group is sufficient. Use this article and the related help articles as reference materials.

Step 4: Set up The Taurus (June-July 2026)

Create your publisher profile on The Taurus:

1. Register an account and create an organization for your media company
2. Set up a publisher profile with your company details, publication type, and contact information
3. Configure default settings -- such as your standard verification workflow and notification preferences
4. Invite team members who will manage advertiser relationships and verify notices

With your publisher profile active, you can:

• Track advertisers and their notices in one place
• See the status of each transparency notice linked to your ad bookings
• Maintain a documented trail of every verification you perform

This setup takes about 30 minutes and only needs to happen once.

Step 5: Reach out to regular advertisers (July-August 2026)

You know who your political advertisers are. Parties, candidates, advocacy organizations -- many of them have placed ads with you before and will do so again.

Contact them proactively:

• Inform them about the October 2026 deadline and your verification requirements
• Ask them to register on The Taurus (or whatever platform they plan to use) and familiarize themselves with the notice creation process
• Share your intake requirements so they know what you will ask for when they place an ad
• Offer to do a test run together -- create a test notice, verify it, and walk through the process

This proactive outreach accomplishes two things: your advertisers are prepared when they place their first regulated ad, and you are not scrambling to explain the process under election pressure.

Step 6: Run a dry run (September 2026)

Before the deadline, process at least one test advertisement through your complete workflow:

1. An advertiser (or someone on your team acting as one) creates a transparency notice
2. Your ad sales team receives the booking and collects the required information using the intake form
3. Your verification team checks the notice for completeness and plausibility
4. Your layout team integrates the QR code into the ad
5. Someone scans the QR code on a proof to verify it works
6. You document the verification in your records

If any step is unclear, slow, or error-prone, fix it now -- while there is no deadline pressure and no real consequences for mistakes.

Timeline summary

The cost of waiting

Publishers who wait until September or October 2026 to start preparing will face a compressed timeline, untrained staff, and surprised advertisers. The first political ads under the new regime will arrive during election campaign periods -- exactly when pressure is highest and time is shortest.

By starting now, you spread the effort across six months. Each step is manageable on its own. Together, they add up to a robust process that protects your publication from enforcement risk and positions you as a reliable partner for political advertisers.