• by Joe Mandese , December 1, 2004

The New York edition of Tribune Co.'s Hoy Spanish-language daily overstated its circulation by 46.4 percent (23.3 percent on Sundays) during the 12-month period ending Sept. 30, 2003, according to findings of an investigation released late Tuesday by the Audit Bureau of Circulations. The newspaper, which was one of a number of major city dailies that have either been caught with or disclosed significant circulation misstatements, has already been censured by the ABC, which has been taking steps to put some bite behind the bark of its circulation audits since the newspaper industry scandal erupted.

"These findings also reinforce the need to place greater scrutiny on hawkers to achieve a higher level of accountability," said Michael Lavery, president and managing director of the ABC, referring to publishers who hawk preliminary circulation figures before they receive their final audits.

As a result of actions taken by the ABC, which censured Hoy in July, the newspaper is now subject to twice-yearly circulation audits and its circulation claims have been excluded for one year from the ABC's so-called FAS-Fax reports, the semi-annual preliminary reports on publishers' top line circulation claims.

Hoy has also been required to submit to the ABC Board a plan of action for correcting the practices found by the audit to be deficient.

Tribune Co., which disclosed similar misstatements for its Long Island, New York daily Newsday, is one of several major publishers to be caught in the scandal, and is among those that have set aside millions of dollars in advertiser compensation plans to pay advertisers that overpaid for newspaper ads during the misstatement period.

Circulation misstatements also have been found at the Chicago Sun-Times, published by Hollinger International and Belo Corp.'s Dallas Morning News.