Chicago Sun-Times sold: Union busters bought it, circulation continues to drop

Put whatever fake spin on it you want but the news that the Chicago Sun-Times has been bought, YET AGAIN, is not good news.

The new owners are former administrators at the union busting Chicago Tribune and you wait. When they take over, it will be a massacre. That's the word in the desolate newsroom at the Sun-Times "offices."

Where will they move them next? And circulation at the Chicago Sun-Times continues to fall. The newspaper continues to falsely claim that their circulation is double what it really is using a slate of hand manipulation of data that includes the circulations of all the little community newspapers that the former publishers cannibalized.

Here's the truth, again, spun in typical newsroom mumbo jumbo (Reporters love to exaggerate the problems of others and pretend their own do not exist):

Circulation has been dropping this year at the Sun-Times and its seven suburban daily papers, according to the latest six-month report by the Audit Bureau of Circulations. Through September, average weekday circulation fell more than 30,000, to 389,353, a 7.2 percent decline, while average Sunday circulation was down nearly 21,000, to 400,506, a 5 percent decline.Excluding its branded suburban papers, the Sun-Times' average daily circulation was 236,371, a 5.9 percent decline from its March totals. The combined Sun-Times group ranks 12th overall in average weekday circulation among U.S. newspapers. The Chicago Tribune, which has seen circulation declines slow this year, ranks ninth. 

 And to get the truth about the Chicago Sun-Times, you of course have to go to the Chicago Tribune to get what little truth the media industry is willing to provide, which is not much.

You can CLICK HERE to read the Tribune story. And what about the MOBSTERS and the robber barons and exploiters who have weaseled their way into the Chicago Sun-Times management? Of course, the Tribune won't say much. But you can bet they are still there.

Watch for MORE layoffs once the new management takes hold. The word is they will begin at their primary community newspaper holdings like the Southtown/Star and do their best to preserve the few union jobs at the Sun-Times to avoid an immediate union fight -- although the union is a weak ghost of what it used to be.

-- BT

We reported it first: Sun-Times planning more layoffs, to break the union

As we reported in November, the Chicago Sun-Times announced it is planning more lay-offs to dismiss union employees in an effort to break the back of the union.

Crains Chicago Business has the story, again.

Click here to read out November 28th story.

Click here to read the full Crain's Story.

(Crain's) — Sun-Times Media Holdings LLC, which owns the Chicago Sun-Times and other suburban newspapers, is cutting workers in another round of reductions aimed at slashing costs as the company finishes its move to a centralized editorial and billing system.

Sun-Times CEO Jeremy Halbreich confirmed that some editorial workers and possibly other employees are losing their jobs, but he declined to say how many. This is the "final piece" of the 18 months of reductions, he said. He declined to say whether all employees had been notified at this point.

...

"It has been very stressful," said Jean Lachat, who lost her job as a full-time photographer after 22 years at the company. "Part of me is really relieved to not have to worry about it anymore."

Ms. Lachat said she's not sure if she feels more sorry for those who lost their jobs or those who remain at the company and have to pick up the slack.

The Chicago-based company has cut hundreds of employees in the past two years at its flagship Chicago paper and at its suburban daily and weekly newspapers in centralizing the editorial and customer billing systems, shuttering some suburban weekly papers and outsourcing its printing and delivery to rival Tribune Co.

The company is still in the process of shifting the printing of the Sun-Times to rival Tribune, and those workers involved will be dismissed through January.

- BT

Chicago Sun-Times Bankruptcy Filing document

Take a look at who is owed money and has a claim against the Chicago Sun-Times, which put its owners first above the everyday hardworking employees:

You can click here to view the filing.

-- BT