Tribune Publishing Newspapers Enroll in Audit Bureau of Circulations' New Insert Verification Service

CHICAGO, Feb. 9 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Tribune Publishing, a division of Tribune Company , today announced that its 11 metropolitan newspapers have agreed to participate in the Audit Bureau of Circulations' new Insert Verification Service (IVS). The new service will provide advertisers with audited measures of the accuracy of Sunday preprint distribution.

"Tribune newspapers have adopted industry recommended best practices and regularly measure preprint accuracy internally," said Vince Casanova, Tribune Publishing vice president/circulation. "We're confident we are delivering a high level of accuracy at our newspapers, and look forward to being able to share those good results with our customers."

The new program, recently announced by ABC, consists of a quantitative review of a newspaper's preprint advertising practices. ABC auditors, working with newspaper personnel, will verify the insert advertising distribution accuracy of a sample of newspapers at the delivery route level.

"IVS is a voluntary program that was developed by ABC-member newspaper publishers and advertisers working together to create a service that provides independent third-party verification and accountability for the preprint advertising industry," said Michael J. Lavery, ABC's president and managing director. "Getting Tribune Publishing's newspapers enrolled in IVS is a demonstration of the relevance of this new service in today's marketplace and a commitment to tomorrow's buyer-seller relationship."

The Chicago Tribune participated in one of ABC's pilot audits in 2005.

"We have been working with ABC and the NAA to help develop an effective approach to verifying distribution and to articulate preprint advertising industry best practices," said John Wollney, director/preprint advertising for Chicago Tribune. "The pilot audit confirmed that our internal quality control procedures were working as designed. Our continued participation in the program will give us an opportunity to better demonstrate the value we provide to advertisers every day."

Craig Sinclair, Walgreen's vice president/advertising and an ABC board member, said, "I am extremely pleased that Tribune's daily newspapers have decided to support this program. They took a leadership role in the industry and were a great partner with the Audit Bureau in developing this program."

Tribune Publishing

Tribune Publishing is the leading U.S. major-market newspaper group, operating 11 daily newspapers: Los Angeles Times; Chicago Tribune; Newsday (Long Island, N.Y.); The Sun (Baltimore); South Florida Sun-Sentinel; Orlando Sentinel; Hartford Courant; The Morning Call (Allentown, Pa.); Daily Press (Newport News, Va.); The Advocate (Stamford, Conn.); and Greenwich Time (Greenwich, Conn.). The group also offers a wide range of targeted publications such as Spanish-language Hoy. In addition, Tribune Publishing includes Tribune Media Services, a leading provider of entertainment listings and content syndication to print and electronic media; Tribune Interactive; and CLTV, the Chicago region's only 24-hour cable news channel. Investment interests include CareerBuilder (33% owned), Classified Ventures (28%), ShopLocal (33%) and Topix.net (25%).

First Call Analyst: FCMN Contact: salcaraz@tribune.com