By: Jennifer Saba The Audit Bureau of Circulations released a statement today addressing the Chicago Sun-Times recent mea culpa on circulation fraud, noting it was recalling several key documents pending an investigation of the paper.
ABC President and Managing Director, Mike Lavery said in the statement: "We find the disclosure very troubling, and are anxious to begin work to identify the past practices that were employed to circumvent ABC's bylaws and rules."
The documents include the Sun-Times' audit reports from 52 weeks ending March 2003; publisher's statements for 26 weeks ending September 2003, March 2003 and September 2002; reader profile audit reports for August 2003; newspaper FAS-FAX supplement for March 2004 and newspaper FAS-FAX entry for the Sun-Times released in May 2004. The company then noted, "all documents previous to the periods mentioned should be considered out of date."
On Tuesday, Hollinger International issued a press release revealing that the Chicago Sun-Times had been "overstating it circulation figures over the past several years." Hollinger is also conducting an internal investigation on the Sun-Times.
ABC is currently looking into the statements for the periods listed and is developing a timetable to complete an audit for the year ending March 2004 "as quickly as possible."
Furthermore, ABC admitted that its audits "are not designed to detect a concerted deliberate intent to misstate information." Calls placed to ABC were not returned.
Comments
No comments on this item Please log in to comment by clicking here