Dallas' circulation filing confirms 11.7% Sunday decrease

DALLAS — Belo Corp. announced that The Dallas Morning News filed its publisher’s statement Feb. 3 with the Audit Bureau of Circulations for the six-month period ended Sept. 30, 2004.

The Morning News has been working with ABC since revealing in August that officials had overstated the News’ circulation. (Read the full press release.)

The reported circulation figures — a decrease of 5.4 percent daily and 11.7 percent Sunday — are similar to those Belo announced on Sept. 29.

“This is an important step in the process of re-establishing confidence

“I am confident that we have made effective interim process changes and are pursuing comprehensive, long-term solutions to ensure the integrity of The Morning News’ circulation and improve the experience of our customers with our product.”

ABC will not issue an audit report of the News’ circulation for the 12 months ended March 31, 2004 or the six months ended Sept. 30, 2004 as it had originally planned.

ABC is auditing the News’ circulation for the six months ending March 31, 2005.

Belo reported that ABC decided not to issue 2004 audits primarily due to the absence of reliable records of independent contractors to support revised circulation figures for city single copy sales.

ABC bylaws require that the ABC’s board approve the release of any publisher’s statement not subject to subsequent audit. The Dallas Morning News plans to request that approval for the September Publisher’s Statement it filed Feb. 3.