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ONE OF THE OLDEST BUSINESS INSTITUTIONS IN TEXAS, BELO CORP., AND ITS FLAGSHIP daily newspaper, The Dallas Morning Herald, continue to weather a trying period in which the paper's circulation overstatements uncovered this summer triggered an exhaustive internal probe as well as an investigation by the Audit Bureau of Circulations. On Sept. 29, Belo announced that its investigation concluded that "aggressive pursuit of goals by former senior circulation managers" and an inadequate system to verify figures were die root causes of the problem.
At the same time, die company announced 250 layoffs, most coming from the Morning News. The staff layoffs are effective Nov. 1.
Seyfarth Shaw, the law firm hired to conduct die internal investigation, found that circulation at the Morning News for the six-month period ended September 2004 was about 5.1 percent less daily and 11.9 percent less Sunday than reported, versus the same period last year.
Despite these weighty problems, the Morning News' ancillary publications have experienced advertising growth. For instance, the Morning News' year-old Spanish-language newspaper, Al Dia, which launched Sept. 29, 2003, has a daily distribution of 40,000 copies Monday-Saturday. Al Dia has been well received by advertisers, having pulled in September revenue of $453,000, nearly two and a half times its January revenue, says James Moroney, The Dallas Morning News publisher and CEO. The Morning News' young adult-oriented freebie, Quick, which turns one year old in November, has a net distribution of 135,000 copies daily. Its September revenue was $278,000, almost triple the figure in January, says Moroney.
In addition, the Morning News recently launched a new upscale publication. Called F!D Luxe, the tide has a distribution of 120,000 to selected zip codes and 30,000 single copies in key retail areas. It is printed on 50-pound matte paper and launched Sept. 16 with 16 pages, including ads from such companies as Neiman Marcus, which had not advertised in the Morning News for some time, says Moroney.
While the Morning News reigns in Dallas County and neighboring counties, Knight Ridder's Fort Worth Star-Telegram is the dominant daily in Tarrant County, in which Fort Worth is situated. The Star-Telegram's Monday-Thursday circulation as of March 31 was 227,474, flat compared to the same period ended March 31, 2003, according to the Audit...