Sun-Times Media Holdings LLC, owner of the Chicago Sun-Times, will shut down 11 Sun weekly newspapers by the end of the year to cut costs, the Chicago Tribune revealed yesterday.

Chief Executive Officer Jeremy Halbreich said the company might close some of its offices, but savings will come from "not printing and distributing the papers," ChicagoBusines.com reported. He said other Sun-Times publications would reabsorb the weeklies' staff.

The Sun newspapers that will be eliminated are Batavia, Bolingbrook, Downers Grove, Geneva, Glen Ellyn, Homer Glen, Lisle, Wheaton, Fox Valley and Lincoln-Way. According to the Sun-Times Media website, these weeklies have a combined circulation of 197,560 copies.

In the last two years, the media group eliminated more than 100 jobs as part of a restructuring process. Furthermore, a group of investors "bought the newspaper assets out of bankruptcy last year for [US]$5 million and the assumption of $22 million in liabilities," ChicagoBusiness.com reminded.