The accounting switch “does limit our ability to accurately describe the trend for newspaper circulation revenues,” said Peter Kalhok, head of publishing and advertising industries at Statistics Canada, told Canwest News Service.

However, not counting the influence the change in accounting had, “circulation revenues for 2006 would have been flat,” he said.

Operating revenues for the Canadian newspaper industry were at $5.34 billion in 2006, a 2.6 percent increase from $5.21 billion in 2005, Canwest News Service reported.