ABC

A few years ago, Khaleej Times signed up with ABC (Audit Bureau of Circulation) to have their circulation figures audited. They made a huge song and dance about this, pointing out that they were the only paper in the Gulf to have done so.

Two weeks ago, Gulf News signed up with them and BPA Worldwide

..."and challenged them to apply the same stringent end-to-end transparency and standards across all other publications, (...)" said Obaid Humaid Al Tayer, managing director of the Al Nisr Group, publisher of Gulf News and associated titles.

Today, Gulf News has reported that ABC is withdrawing from the Middle East market

This confirms our belief that the previous audits offered by ABC could not stand up to intensive scrutiny," he (Al Tayer) said.

Very very strange. It doesn't actually matter to me which is the biggest selling paper. And to advertisers, it's not total numbers, it's demographic breakdowns that are crucially important. Khaleej Times is a woeful attempt at a newspaper that I read not more than once a week, purely for amusement, and only if I come across a free copy. I would never, ever, pay money for a KT. GN is a halfway decent paper that I probably buy three or four times a week.

But I can do without this constant and utterly pointless sniping.