... that there was a reason for that weird "clarification" in the Coeur d'Alene Press over the weekend re: the readership numbers that Editor Mike Patrick ballyhooed Jan. 10 -- you know, the story in which Patrick bragged that Brand X readership was bucking national trends by going up, up, up. Seems Scarborough Research insisted on the correction because they questioned Patrick's interpretation of the numbers and didn't like having one of its people quoted by name. Also, SR marketing execs wonder where Patrick arrived at the notion that our newspaper readership was in decline. SReadership has increased significantly in the greater Spokane area (although paid circulation has gone down, as a result of several market factors). The SR has never tried to cloak the fact that it's going through tough times, as is almost all of the newspaper industry. If Patrick really wants to impress, he'd demand that Hagadone execs open their pressroom up to a bonafide audit of paid-circulation numbers, like the SR does. Without that audit, he can say paid circulation is anything he wants it to be.