CHICAGO (AP) - Long-delayed circulation figures released Friday for the Chicago Sun-Times showed steep declines at the city's No. 2 daily.
A report by the Audit Bureau of Circulations showed that the Sun-Times' weekday paid newspaper circulation averaged 349,968 from April to September 2005, down nearly 9 percent from 382,796 for the previous six months.
Circulation of the Sunday paper was 281,129, a 16 percent drop from 333,490 for the previous six-month period.
The report was delayed after the Audit Bureau censured the Sun-Times for misstatements in 2004. Neal Lulofs, a spokesman for the agency, said the other delayed Sun-Times circulation reports are expected to be released by the end of the year.
Newspaper circulation has been declining steadily for years as reader habits change and other news media have grown in importance, particularly 24-hour cable TV news and the Internet.
'The industry's in tough times, and we're not out of line with what the rest of the industry did when you look at our home-delivery and single-copy numbers,' said spokeswoman Tammy Chase of Sun-Times Media Group Inc., the newspaper's parent company. Sun-Times Media Group also owns more than 100 community newspapers serving the Chicago metropolitan area.
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