INFLATED CIRCULATION, Probing firm's ties to Newsday NASSAU AND SUFFOLK Edition

"For some time, Newsday has been investigating its past dealings with companies controlled by Mr. [James Cisek] and has been terminating those relationships. As a result of this new information, we are ending the last of those relationships immediately," spokesman Stu Vincent said. On the...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inNewsday
Main Author This story was reported by MARK HARRINGTON, STEVE WICK, JAMES T. MADORE and TOM MCGINTY. It was written by HARRINGTON
Format Newspaper Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Long Island, N.Y Newsday LLC 03.11.2004
EditionCombined editions
Subjects
Circulation
Investigations
Long Island New York
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Summary:"For some time, Newsday has been investigating its past dealings with companies controlled by Mr. [James Cisek] and has been terminating those relationships. As a result of this new information, we are ending the last of those relationships immediately," spokesman Stu Vincent said. On the questions about payments to former Newsday officials, Vincent said, "We were unaware of any payments to any employees by Mr. Cisek, which would be a clear violation of Newsday and Tribune Company policy." Two people familiar with the Cisek operations said the company lost the subscription sales portion of the business just months after officials at Newsday were told in April that hundreds and perhaps thousands of orders to begin subscriptions were bogus. Documents shown to Newsday reporters indicate Cisek also was advised of the invalid orders around the time they were brought to the attention of Newsday earlier this year. And this wasn't the first time. A former Innovative manager said Newsday called a meeting in 2001 to voice concerns about the quality of orders from the foot- crews. PHOTOS BY HOWARD SCHNAPP-1) Sterling Temporary Services placard for a company, once located in Hauppauge, that did business with Newsday (A04 C). 2) Newsday's Yaphank distribution office where allied businessman James Cisek still maintians a second-floor office (A40 C); 3) The entrance to James Cisek-owned Sterling Personnel Services office in Hauppauge. Companies owned by Cisek may have helped Newsday inflate circulation numbers. [CORRECTION: Five Star Staffing purchased Sterling Personnel Services from James Cisek two years ago. A photo of Sterling's office door accompanied a story on Newsday circulation practices in Wednesday's editions, but the caption failed to make clear that the new owner is not connected to allegations reported in the story. Pg. A08 NS 11/5/04]