I refer to the correspondence on readership surveys. Allow me to quote a recent survey on newspapers and MaltaToday.

The survey I quote from is The Media Warehouse one which carries data on the media including newspapers read on Sunday.

From the findings it appears that in 2002, two per cent of respondents said they read MaltaToday on Sunday. In April 2003 the figure rose by 2.7 to 4.7 per cent. And now, in October 2003, the latest survey shows that it has risen again to 5.9 per cent.

In just one year MaltaToday's readership on Sunday has grown by a staggering 295 per cent. Proof that this is the fastest constantly growing newspaper on the island.

The same phenomenon has happened with The Malta Financial & Business Times, MaltaToday's sister newspaper, with readership rising from 1.4 per cent this April to five per cent in October 2003, a percentage growth of 357 per cent.

Your correspondent quotes the global newspaper market share over a whole week and conveniently ignores the figures of newspapers read on the day. Though surveys have given MaltaToday a thumbs up, MaltaToday has made it a point to make known the print run and sales figure. At present our sales figure stands at 7,200.

Needless to say we welcome a transparent public audit of the sales figure as is the norm in countries with a newspaper culture.

MaltaToday every Sunday has turned out to be a success story because our growing readership appreciates our freshness and our style of journalism. It is all thanks to the dedication and team effort at Newsworks, the publishers of MaltaToday and The Malta Financial & Business Times.