DAILY XPRESS - WHO CARES?

"The Daily Xpress print run of 100,000 copies has been certified by Grant Thornton (6 April 2008)".

The above statement has started to appear on page two of Daily Xpress, Thailand's first free English daily. Having working in the media for more than 16 years now I know this statement means ... absolutely nothing.
I do not dispute that 100,000 copies are printed, after all Grant Thornton is a respected and trusted business consultancy. What I will dispute until it's proven is that 100,000 copies are physically distributed or read - and that is the most important thing as far as advertisers are concerned.
The fact is that free copy publications the world over get dumped, and even though it's free Daily Xpress does have a value - for the paper recycling industry. It's not much but if a distributor can get paid twice - once from Nation Group for distributing the copies and once by a paper recycler for delivering said copies to the pulping mill - what's to stop him and who will know?
If Daily Xpress wants to impress me it should get audited by one of the two global independent media organisations. They will thoroughtly audit the entire process and show exactly how many copies are distributed. To give you an example have a look here to download a PDF of the audit for London's Metro newspaper. That information has real value where just saying how many copies are printed is totally meaningless.

P.S. My request to Daily Xpress for a copy of the Grant Thornton certfied print-run statement under the pretence of being a potential advertiser has yet to receive a response.