In November 1949 German advertisers, advertising agencies and publishers convened to establish the German Advertising Federation and, initially as a subdivision, the German Audit Bureau of Circulations "Informationsgemeinschaft zur Feststellung der Verbreitung von Werbeträgern IVW". The activities started with recording and auditing the circulation figures of print media such as newspapers, consumer magazines and business publications. During following decades additional media followed like cinema, outdoor, broadcasting and 15 years ago online and digital.

Since then IVW is a non-profit, neutral and independent organization, arranged as a joint industry committee JIC. All participants of the German advertising industry are represented in the Board of Directors "IVW-Verwaltungsrat" and the subordinated working committees. The main work results are published in the quarterly circulation report "IVW-Auflagenliste" as PDF and individual online request  by title and in the monthly digital report "Nutzungsdaten" divided into online, mobile, apps and connected tv and furthermore broken down by technical attributes and content categories.