Hollinger Says 'Sun-Times' Inflated Circ Figures for Years

By: Mark Fitzgerald Circulation of the Chicago Sun-Times, which in the latest Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC) report lagged the rival Chicago Tribune by more than 127,000 copies on weekdays and 624,000 copies on Sunday, was even worse than it looked for the last several years, Hollinger International revealed Tuesday.

In a press release issued after the financial markets closed, the company said it was conducting an internal review "into practices that resulted in the overstatement of circulation figures ... over the past several years" at the Sun-Times (Click for QuikCap).

The Sun-Times revelation took ABC by surprise, said Heidi Chen, a spokesperson for the Schaumburg, Ill.-based organization. "We found out about it yesterday," she said Wednesday. "We found out when everyone else did." ABC looked back five years in its records, and said the Sun-Times had never been cited for variances between its FAS-FAX statements and audited results, she added.

The Hollinger statement implied that the practices, which it did not detail, occurred under David F. Radler, the Conrad Black confidant and Hollinger Inc. executive who resigned as publisher in November.

It said that "among the efforts undertaken by the new leadership at the Chicago Sun-Times has been a focus on ensuring the accuracy of circulation figures" reported to ABC. The review of circulation "intensified" after the April 1 increase in the single-copy price to 50-cents from 35-cents. "The Sun-Times has discontinued the practices believed to have led to the overstated circulation reporting," Hollinger said.

In a memo and meeting with newsroom staff Tuesday, current Sun-Times Publisher John Cruickshank said he discovered the practices, which he also did not detail, at the time of the price hike. The paper's current reported circulation is not accurate, he told the staff.

Hollinger said an internal investigation of circulation practices at its United Kingdom properties, including The Daily Telegraph in London, found no irregularities. Separately, the Financial Times of London reported Tuesday that Hollinger International interim CEO Gordon Paris will be in London this week to review three bids for the U.K. properties.

The company said it would have no further comment on the Sun-Times situation until the completion of the review being conducted by in-house council and the outside firm Gardner Carton & Douglas LLP. That should be done by the end of the month, the company said.

In the latest ABC FAS-FAX figures for the six-month period ended March 31, Sun-Times circulation Monday through Friday was 486,936, down about 1,500 copies from the year-ago period. Sunday circulation was 378,371, down about 3,900 copies.