From time to time, I put down my red pencil and pick up my writer’s quill to bring you up to date on recent developments at the National Post.

This week is a special one for us because we have the results of our exclusive COMPAS survey of newspaper readers’ choices. I believe the results will finally put to rest some of the fallacies about newspapers in general and ours in particular. On a personal level, it is always gratifying to discover that one’s efforts have a large captive audience.

There has been a lot of smoke (but no light) lately from some addled academics and CBC hacks on the subject of newspaper ownership concentration. Their “analysis” has ranged from red-herring speculation, and personal attacks, to self-important puffery and downright silliness. Perhaps their most wild (and unsupported) accusation is that chain ownership of newspapers will somehow intrinsically degrade the product and drive readers away. We thought the best response to this drivel was to let you, the readers, have your say. In a major departure for this debate, we are actually going to present facts, not just cheap sentiment.

First and foremost, the survey shows that almost nine out of ten Canadians (88 per cent) choose newspapers, such as our own National Post, from the four (oops, three) largest newspaper groups (Hollinger/Southam, Quebecor, Torstar and soon to be ex-Thomson). Far from driving readers away, the portion of Canadians choosing newspapers from the top four chains has increased dramatically from 30 years ago when they had the allegiance of only five of ten purchasers.

The in-depth questions of the COMPAS survey showed that consumers vastly preferred local chain newspapers to any of the alternatives offered including: no newspaper, old issues of USA Today, or a slap in the face by the interviewer.

We at Hollinger/Southam would like to give a special tip of the hat to readers in Prince Edward Island, Newfoundland and Saskatchewan – our survey indicates that every single reader of a local daily newspaper in those provinces had the good taste to choose a Hollinger/Southam paper. Even in wild and weird British Columbia, 95 per cent of readers of local dailies chose Hollinger/Southam. We say to smug central Canada – the hinterlands are far ahead of you on this one, time to catch up!

We say to the navel-gazing academics: if independent newspapers are so wonderful, why do less than 2 per cent of Canadian paper readers buy them? Here at the National Post we’re proud of our achievements in the only poll that really matters – the voting booth of the marketplace, where you cast your ballot with your hard-earned dollars.

On a completely different topic, I am also pleased to announce that the National Post has won another major international award. The Multinational Plastic Manufacturers Association has graced our newspaper boxes with their prestigious Golden Blob medal for excellence in plastic product design.

In their citation, the blue-ribbon panel of judges exclaimed, “Wow – bodacious curves!” and “Beautiful fake granitey finish.” Although producing an excellent product like ours is reward enough in itself (when you include the six-figure salary), I am always thrilled to receive the acknowledgment of my corporate peers.