of Ross County's Cup win this week is deplorable, the reportage is relegated to the top third of the inside back page when it really should have been given the full back page in all fairness, Ok they were rivals in the past but as neighbours they surely deserve more credit by a local paper and certainly when they are going through a difficult period.

Given that newspapers throughout the land are facing falling circulation and advertising revenues it surely doesn't do to fail Ross County supporters with this type of reporting when you consider that many of them live in Inverness.

Sandy, you obviously feel very strongly about this so why not write to the editor of the papers concerned. You may even get a favourable response.

Yes Alex that would have been the course of action pre internet and I would have probably received a reply much the same as Charles has posted on this thread, however given that sports journos from across the country trawl sites such as this then criticism of this nature reminds them that we are not just fodder for disparate reporting but that we deserve accurate and informative coverage for our area, in short we have the facility to criticise nationally at our fingertips and not just a letter to an editor.

What has surprised me on this thread is that one poster who I suspect has not lived in the area for some years, nor purchased the two papers mentioned on a weekly basis, is advocating 'Local news for Local people'.

Anyway it's another week and thats a long time in politics so for me this has run it's course, hope you're home for Christmas Alex.

Sandy, I dont live in the area, though I'm thinking of moving up, but I do read the courier online and get the HN delivered to Perth. Yes I am home for both Christmas and New Year. First time in five years.

To answer Alex's question:

- ABC is the Audit Bureau of Circulation, an industry body that records how many copies of a paid-for newspaper are bought

- VFD (Verified Free Distribution) is the equivalent certification for free-distribution newspapers

- JICREG is another industry body that monitors the number of people actually reading the newspaper (i.e. you, your wife, the kids, the dog) - for paid-for newspapers you normally have 2-3 people reading each copy; for the worst of the free-distribution newspapers you can sometimes have less people reading a newspaper than the number of copies distributed (i.e. a large number go straight in the bin). JICREG enables a better comparison between paids and frees if we need to compare readership in any given area.

The Highland News (like a number of other newspapers) is misleadingly named - it only covers a small geographical part of the Highlands. Calling it the "Highland News" makes it sound grander!

Incidentally, circulation figures (average copies sold) for the Ross-shire Journal, Inverness Courier, P&J and The Scotsman for comparison:

Inverness (adult pop c.52000): Courier Friday edition 16373, P&J 5933, Ross-shire Journal 1467, Scotsman 555

Dingwall (adult pop c.15000): Ross-shire Journal 4320, P&J 1714, Courier Friday 813, Scotsman 89

To sum up: 10 times as many people in Inverness read the Courier than the Ross-shire Journal, 5 times as many people in Dingwall read the Journal than the Courier, virtually nobody reads The Scotsman! Figures that go some way to explaining why news and sport will be reported with a local bias in the weeklies - the P&J is the only newspaper with a decent circulation all across the Highlands.