The Tulsa World, published by World Publishing, has filed a lawsuit against Renegade Publishing, Inc., the owner of newspaper Urban Tulsa, as well as its publisher, Keith Skrzypczak, and columnist Michael D. Bates, the Tulsa Beacon reported Thursday.

The defamation lawsuit is being brought on because an article written by Bates states the Tulsa World hid a drop in its circulation from its advertisers, the newspaper announced.

The story written by Bates "falsely asserts a steep drop of paid circulation for the Tulsa World from 2005 when compared to the paid circulation for the Tulsa World for 2006, suggesting that the World was inflating its paid circulation by as much as 20 percent," the suit states, adding that the article constitutes "commercial disparagement of the Tulsa World."

According to the lawsuit, the Tulsa world stopped using Independent Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC) figures because it had "lost faith" in the auditing group's data. For example, an ABC audit shows average paid circulation Monday through Friday in 2006 was at 126,736, while another audit in 2005 showed the same paid circulation to be at 134,945 - a 6 percent difference, the Tulsa Beacon reported.

Bates, however, said his article was thoroughly researched, as he works hard to give "an accurate picture grounded in fact."