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There are two kinds of people in Chicago. Sox fans and Cubs fans? Hah. Try Sun-Times people and Tribune people. Yesterday, Sun-Times folks took a serious blow when Hollinger International, the paper’s parent company, announced that it had overstated the Sun-Times's circulation for the last several years, which artificially inflated advertising rates. According to the Tribune,
Executives at the newspaper wouldn't comment on specific findings of its internal investigation. But sources close to the paper said the Sun-Times had overstated its daily newsstand sales by at least 25 percent, or more than 78,000 copies a day, for at least two years and possibly longer.
That would mean that the Sun-Times' reported 481,798 average Monday-Friday circulation actually should be about 403,000 copies. ...
[T]he circulation scheme involved counting as sold papers that never got into readers' hands, one source said.
"Tens of thousands of papers were going out in the morning and coming back at night," said the source, a former top executive at the Sun-Times.
Oh, they are definitely peeing in their newspants over at the Tribune right now. Information about the inflated numbers started surfacing after April 1, when the Sun-Times raised prices from 35 cents to 50.
According to the Trib, circulation padding is not uncommon in the industry; Newsday, a Long Island paper that is part of the Tribune Company, was sued by advertisers for misrepresenting circulation information earlier this year.
This scandal comes at a sticky time for Hollinger, already ass-deep in problems from unauthorized payments to former Chief Executive Conrad Black and Sun-Times Publisher David Radler. Black and Radler stepped down in November, but Black is still the controlling shareholder, and sources close to him suggested to the Trib that the announcement of the inflated circulation was an attempt to discredit him and Radler. Um, it’s working?
Hollinger is trying to sell off its papers, and a deal to sell London's Daily Telegraph is expected in the next few days; the company tried to sell the Sun-Times but no one wanted it. But now? Oh, we think people will be all over that funk. What with the lying and low circulation and all.
Chicagoist thinks newspaper scandals are way too fun because newspapers have to write about their own shit (big ups, Jayson Blair), and it becomes this cute little honesty dance. The Sun-Times has to write about what happened because otherwise it’ll look like the’re hiding something, but they can’t write too much about it because then they’ll look like assholes. The Trib wants to write about it because something crapped on their enemies, and that’s funny, but they can’t write too much about it because it will look like they’re gloating. Which it kind of seems like they are.
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Many of us who read the Tribune more frequently woudl hate to see the Sun-Times go away. The Trib does a better job on national and international news, but the Sun-Times scoops them on local issues quite often.
The last thing any news reader in Chicago should want is a one-newspaper town (and no, the Daily Herald doesn't count).
One quibble: there were at least four serious bidders for Hollinger's Chicago group, but the offers were far below what Hollinger apparently thinks they are worth. Also, there was a report that Hollinger is waiting 12-18 months to sell in order to avoid a tax burden that would kick in if they sold the Chicago group this year.
I'd hate to see the Sun-Times go away, too, even if Hollinger has damn near killed it in recent years with sleazy tabloid tendencies and a nasty, partisan, right-wing editorial bent. But I'd love to see it continue... under new management.
Norm, I figured you were a USA Today reader ... or read nothing but The Vineline
What made you figure that?
Just how deep is "ass deep"?
Norm, I thought the USA Today would be more your speed, you know, with lots of colorful pictures.
And really, why shouldn't the Trib gloat? Some undue pressure has been released, and you'd better believe some if not all advertisers are going to see the a Trib ad as a better buy than a Sun-Times ad.
Backer, suffice it to say you know nothing about my reading habits, pal.
There's little overlap in the Trib and S-T ads -- I can't imagine all the windows, door and carpet companies going over to the Trib.
However, I can imagine the Trib trying to yank up their rates if the S-T dies. Which I don't think it will anytime soon, if only because it'll at least keep going as long as Hollinger and Black are in court, which appears to be a long time.
One other thing: the Tribune Co. should be the LAST ones to gloat about all this, considering the circulation shennanigans they have been busted for in regards to the RedEye.
(Long story short: they were telling advertisers that RedEye circulated at 150,000, half of them paid. An audit turned up they were only circulating around 70,000 and that they were only selling *nine thousand* paid copies per day. Why the trixie-laden Lincoln Park watering holes still line up to advertise in that paper is beyond me...)
I think both newspapers are spinning their wheels with the dumbed-down Red Bull newspapers. USA Today has better news coverage than those rags, and the idea that a younger news reader can't pay attention or needs bright graphics is both insulting and clueless. Both of these papers have the smell of design-by-committee, and I can't help but picture the Simpsons episode where Poochie was created when I try to envision the creation of the Reds.
That being said, I could care less about the RedEye's made-up numbers, given that it is hardly a major newspaper in this city. Both of the Reds could die tomorrow, and the Sun-Times will still have this circulation fiasco on their hands.
(Ironically, my grandfather worked in the circulation department for both the Daily News and the Sun-Times, and was one of the few Field-era employees that didn't immediately get let go after Rupert Murdoch bought out the paper in the 80s. I don't doubt that he is shaking his head in disgust at his long-ago former employer, since it has really fallen hard in the last 20 years.)
Oops. Apparently, the Tribune has problems with overstating the circulation for both the Spanish-language Hoy and Newsday in New York:
http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/chi-0406180306jun18,1,7866324.story?coll=chi-business-hed
The main difference for me is that the Tribune isn't trying to sell Hoy or Newsday, while Hollinger was trying to sell the Sun-Times at one point, and overstating its circulation would affect any bid from potential buyers.
The Trib included a Redeye with my home delivered copy yesterday and today. I didn't request it, didn't pay for it, don't want it and have no use for it. Nothing like that with my daily Sun-Times. So does the Trib count that unrequested Redeye as paid? I suppose that's one way to drive up the numbers. Mr. Redeye meet Mr. Bluebag.