Register Removes 2 Circulation Managers

The Orange County Register has dismissed its two top circulation managers as an independent audit of its circulation figures is drawing to a close.

Patrick Elster, the paper’s vice president for circulation, and Joseph Mertins, his top aide, “are no longer employed” by the Register, Publisher R. David Threshie said Wednesday.

Threshie declined comment, however, on a published report that the two officials were removed because the audit would show that the circulation figures were overstated by as much as 20,000.

Robert C. Hardie, chairman of Irvine-based Freedom Newspapers Inc., which publishes the Register, acknowledged in a separate interview that he was aware of possible problems with the Register’s circulation figures. He said he expects to get a full report from Register personnel early next week.

“I’ve heard about it and I’m distressed by it,” Hardie said. “But I do not know the full extent of it. I’m anxious to learn about it.”

The Register originally had put Elster and Mertins on administrative leave. But Threshie left no doubt Wednesday that they were now gone.

Elster, reached at home Wednesday afternoon, said he had not been told that he was out of a job and understood that he was still on leave. He acknowledged that a dispute existed between him and the Register, but would not comment further. He denied a report that he was removed, at least temporarily, because of possible overstated circulation figures.

The Register is “bracing for an embarrassment--a scaling back of its stated circulation numbers by some 20,000”--when an Audit Bureau of Circulations report is released within a month or so, according to an Orange County Business Journal article.

ABC has been conducting its annual audit of the Register’s circulation figures but has not yet told executives what it has found, he said. ABC officials in Schaumburg, Ill., said Wednesday that they could not comment.

The circulation controversy revolves around the newspaper’s claimed number of papers sold and the number verified by the ABC. Circulation figures are important in determining what a publication can charge for advertising.

Last March, the Register reported a daily circulation of 372,750 and a Sunday figure of 429,146. The Times Orange County edition reported 184,648 daily circulation and 262,475 Sunday circulation. The Times overall circulation is 1,242,864 daily and 1,576,425 Sunday, making it the nation’s largest metropolitan daily.