• Chicago Sun-Times, Wednesday, February 13, 2008 11:15 AM

Tribune Co. has gotten into yet another spat with Windy City rival Sun-Times Group after the former ordered its WGN-AM radio to re-record the voiceover of a Sun-Times commercial that highlighted the latter's supposed readership edge over the Tribune in Chicago proper. Adding insult to injury, the 30-second spot was voiced by Dean Richards, a TV and radio personality with a voice easily recognized by WGN listeners. Also, the Tribune's ad sales department rejected a print ad from the Sun-Times that made the same claims, based on Scarborough Research data that compared readership of the Sun-Times and the Tribune for five daily editions plus Sunday - and gave the Sun-Times a clear edge.

Says Tribune Publisher Scott Smith, "Our advertising policy reserves the right to reject proposed ads for any reason, including ads from competing media. He adds that the paper, "including our RedEye edition, has more readers in the city than the Sun-Times and far more readers in the market as a whole. So we don't agree with the accuracy of the ad....""

But Hunt Kingsbury, vice president for marketing for Sun-Times Media Group, calls out that comparison and says that "based on early, positive advertiser response to our campaign, I'm not surprised the Tribune wouldn't run the ad. If I were them, I wouldn't want advertisers to know the Sun-Times is the No. 1-read paper in the city of Chicago either."

Read the whole story at Chicago Sun-Times »