The executive in charge of circulation for the Chicago Sun-Times has resigned, two weeks after the paper’s parent company announced it had inflated its circulation figures for several years.
Stephen Hastings resigned on Monday as the Sun-Times‘s vice-president for circulation, according to the paper’s publisher, John Cruickshank.
Meanwhile, Mark Hornung, who was vice-president for circulation from 1995 to 2001, was placed on administrative leave from his current post as president and publisher of the (Tinley Park) Daily Southtown, a Sun-Times sister paper.
Hollinger International, which owns the Sun-Times, said Hornung was placed on leave as a consequence of an internal investigation into the circulation error, the paper reported in Tuesday’s editions.
“But as we haven’t completed the investigation, it’s interim,” Cruickshank said. “There’s been no finding yet.”
Cruickshank declined to comment on Hastings’s departure. Hornung declined to comment, and Hastings could not be reached for comment, the Sun-Times said.
Hollinger International, which also owns London’s Daily Telegraph and The Jerusalem Post, announced the circulation discrepancy on June 15. It said the overstatement was discovered when a new leadership team took over there after Conrad Black stepped down as CEO of Hollinger International in November. It did not say how much of the Sun-Times‘s circulation was overstated.
Advertisers filed two lawsuits against the Sun-Times and Hollinger International in response to the company’s announcement.
Advertising rates are commonly set according to a newspaper’s circulation.
The Audit Bureau of Circulations currently ranks the Sun-Times as the nation’s 21st-largest newspaper with a circulation of 486Â 936.
Michael Waters, the Daily Southtown‘s editor, said he will serve as interim publisher.
Another Chicago-based newspaper company also announced two weeks ago that it overstated circulation numbers. The Tribune Company said circulation numbers for its New York-based Newsday and Spanish-language Hoy publications — available in Chicago, New York and Los Angeles — had been inflated. — Sapa-AP