HLR Hollinger Intl CL A

CHICAGO, Dec. 21 /PRNewswire/ -- The Sun-Times News Group ("STNG") provided the following information regarding the audit report issued today for the Chicago Sun-Times by the Audit Bureau of Circulations ("ABC") for the twenty-six-week period ended March 27, 2005. That report recorded the average daily, Saturday and Sunday circulation of the Chicago Sun-Times as: 382,796; 263,781; and 333,490, respectively. In October 2004, Hollinger International, the parent Company of STNG, announced the results of an internal review of circulation reporting at the Chicago Sun-Times which concluded, among other things, that the daily circulation reported in the last available report from ABC, which was issued in April 2004 and covered the year-ended March 30, 2003, was improperly inflated by approximately 50,000 copies. That April 2004 report has been withdrawn by ABC. In 2004, the Chicago Sun-Times took certain steps designed to improve the profitability of its business, some of which resulted in an anticipated decline in circulation, including instituting a single-copy price increase in April 2004 and dramatically reducing unprofitable bulk sales. During the same period, circulation continued to decline at the Chicago Sun-Times as a result of under-investment in prior years. These declines mirrored in declining circulation figures across the newspaper industry. STNG believes that operational improvements at the Chicago Sun-Times over the past year have now stabilized its circulation, consistent with recent data from Scarborough Research, which shows general growth in several key categories of Chicago Sun-Times readership. John Cruickshank, Publisher of STNG, said, "At STNG, we are emerging from a difficult period for our Company, which can be characterized by under- investment in prior years. Those days are well behind us, and over the course of 2005 we have taken a series of steps to improve editorial quality as well as the ways in which we market and merchandise all of our media properties and deliver news to our readers. "We have undertaken these efforts during an extraordinary period for our industry, with traditional newspapers all facing increased pressure. I am proud of the way we've risen to the challenge and the results we are now seeing. As we continue identifying opportunities to deliver even better content to our readers and leverage the full breadth of our local media properties, we believe that we will be able to continue to drive growth now and over the long term." The Sun-Times News Group includes the Chicago Sun-Times, Pioneer Press, Daily Southtown and Star, Naperville Sun, Post Tribune of Northwest Indiana, and suburban newspapers in Joliet, Aurora, Elgin and Waukegan. It is owned by Hollinger International Inc. (NYSE:HLR). CONTACT: Molly Morse / Jeremy Fielding Kekst and Company 212-521-4826 / 212-521-4825 / DATASOURCE: The Sun-Times News Group CONTACT: Molly Morse, +1-212-521-4826, , or Jeremy Fielding, +1-212-521-4825, , both of Kekst and Company, for The Sun-Times News Group

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