Belo Corp. said Thursday that an internal investigation of circulation practices at its newspapers uncovered inflated figures at its Dallas Morning News.
Belo said that the Dallas Morning News executive in charge of circulation had resigned, effective immediately.
Belo Chairman and Chief Executive Robert Decherd ordered senior management to review the circulation practices at all of Belo’s newspapers in June.
The discovery, which comes on the heels of similar revelations by Tribune Co.’s Newsday and Spanish-language Hoy and Hollinger International’s Chicago Sun-Times, could cast further doubts among advertisers about the newspaper publishing industry’s credibility.
Reviews of circulation procedures at Belo’s other major newspapers, the Providence Journal and The Press-Enterprise in Riverside, Calif., began in early July. Belo said it doesn’t expect significant issues to arise at either of those newspapers, based on reviews to date. The two newspapers don’t use the same circulation practices as the Dallas Morning News.
Belo, which also operates TV stations, estimated that the misstatement at the Dallas Morning News will trim daily circulation by 1.5 percent and Sunday circulation by 5 percent.
The newspaper is working on a plan to compensate advertisers and expects to inform them about it in the next seven business days.
