Sir, - Michael Foley's report on newspaper circulation figures (August 17th) did not compare like with like. The figures cited for Irish publications were for total sales (i.e. Ireland and the UK) while the figure for the Sunday Times (89,172) was for the Republic of Ireland only and did not include our sale in Northern Ireland of 31,008 in the same period. Figures for the Sunday Independent (315,600) and Sunday Tribune (84,566) included sales in Northern Ireland and Britain. A conservative estimate is that the former sells 23,000 in the UK. The Tribune sells about 5,000 there.
The effect of Mr Foley's reporting was to understate the success of the Sunday Times and to overstate the performance of the indigenous titles. - Yours, etc.,
Rory Godson, Ireland Editor, The Sunday Times, St Stephen's Green, Dublin 2.