Sun-Times Kills 11 Weeklies, Freelancers, But Not Staffers, Are Cut?

The Sun-Times Media group is discontinuing eleven free weeklies distributed in Chicago suburbs, reports Phil Rosenthal.

The titles had a combined circulation of a quarter million, but they weren’t pulling their weight financially: “It’s the byproduct of our evaluating the market coverage,and the positioning and profitability of those products,” Sun Times media CEO Jeremy Halbreich said yesterday.

He also said that since the papers relied on staff from elsewhere in the company as well as freelancers, this move should not “contribute significantly” to layoffs. (However, elsewhere in the Sun-Times group, staff layoffs have reached the triple digits.)

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