Memo from Sun-Times Media Group president/CEO

From: Cyrus Freidheim
August 11, 2008

Dear Sun-Times Media Group colleagues

We announced today that the Sun-Times News Group has expanded its relationship with Classifieds Plus, Inc. to outsource nearly all of the Company’s inbound classified call center activities. Outbound classified sales will continue to be operated in-house.

You may recall that we launched a pilot program with Classifieds Plus at our Fox Valley division in March. We have been pleased with the results at Fox Valley and believe rolling out the program is the right thing to do. Our relationship with Classified Plus gives us the potential to increase revenue per call and provides our customers with daily and weekend service 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

The Sun-Times News Group joins hundreds of other newspaper companies around the country in outsourcing functions that no longer need to be kept in-house. The financial environment for our industry is brutal, and we have to be vigilant in reducing costs while maintaining and improving service to our customers and investing in growth areas like online media. There will be some staff reduction as a result of this decision. These are tough times, but we remain focused on our goal: to continue to be the Chicago region’s best source of local news and information. We owe it to our readers and our advertisers.

The transition to Classifieds Plus will be phased in over a period of several months across the rest of the Company’s business units, which are the Chicago Sun-Times, Midwest Suburban Publishing, Pioneer Press and Post-Tribune. Details regarding the personnel changes will be communicated shortly.

Thank you for your support and continued dedication to the Company.

Cyrus Freidheim

SOURCE: Erica Smith