I refer to Christopher Redshaw's letter regarding the local printing of the Daily Mirror as from this week (February 12).

As a service to our readers we go to great effort and cost to endeavour to obtain the earliest on-sale time in all markets outside the UK. To achieve this, we print in many EU countries and tourist destinations.

The commercial reality is that production costs for short-run volumes of newspapers and especially for the low numbers involved in a small market like Malta are extremely high - this is a fact that cannot be avoided. Despite this, we continue to maintain the lowest possible selling price in Malta, and, in fact, as printed on the newspaper, the price in Malta (which also includes VAT) is the lowest in any market where the Daily Mirror prints outside the UK. Wherever we print overseas, our readers appreciate the early-morning-same-day-of-issue availability and are prepared to pay a slight premium for this vastly improved service. There are also advantages to local industry as well as ecological considerations in avoiding airfreight and the overall improved service to British residents and tourists on holiday in Malta.