CHICAGO – The chief executive of Sun-Times Media Group Inc. told shareholders Tuesday that the newspaper company hopes to see improvement next year after what he acknowledged has been continuing decline in 2007.

Cyrus Freidheim, who took the top job at the ailing company at the end of last year, said at the Sun-Times’ annual meeting that all its publications are being evaluated for quality, impact and profitability, with several to be restructured and some to be eliminated.

The Chicago Sun-Times’ parent company already has trimmed its work force by 10 percent in the past year and cut costs elsewhere as it tries to cope with a persistent slide in circulation and advertising revenue.

The grim message was a condensed version of the outlook Freidheim conveyed to analysts on May 16, when he said some unprofitable community publications would be shut down as part of a turnaround plan.

“We fully understand that the company’s performance has been unacceptable,” Freidheim told an audience of about 100 investors and employees.

Despite a push to shift content and advertising to the Internet, “we live and die by the print media” for the short term, he said, with print accounting for 95 percent of ad revenues.

Advertising and circulation revenues were down 11 percent and 7 percent, respectively, in the first quarter, as the long-term loss of advertisers and readers showed no signs of abating.

“We are fully aware that we are in an industry where both advertising and circulation revenues are declining at significant rates, but we understand also that our success, our future, depends on us bucking that trend,” Freidheim said.

Besides advertising and circulation declines, the former Hollinger International Inc. has been hampered and distracted by legal expenses, circulation fraud and heavy costs for auditing, insurance and other issues, the CEO said.

“By the end of the year 2007, we hope to put our legacy problems behind us and to concentrate all of our energies on improving operations and growing our earnings,” he said.

Besides the Sun-Times, the company’s newspapers include Pioneer Press, which publishes 58 weekly newspapers and one free paper in Chicago’s northern and northwestern suburbs; the Daily Southtown and Star; the daily Post-Tribune of northwest Indiana; and daily suburban newspapers in Joliet, Elgin, Aurora, Naperville and Waukegan, Ill.

Sun-Times shares, which peaked at more than $20 in 2004, rose 13 cents to $5.55 in afternoon trading.