I have been an avid reader of PCN since issue 1 and have read the various attacked on your own and other magazines, by owners of micros which have succumbed to the pressures of the market place. Until now I have been disinclined to enter the affray, even in defence of my beloved Dragon.

However I feel I must now interpose particularly on behalf of Dragon owners and other, especially British, micro owners (e.g. Lynx, Oric, etc).

There are many hobby magazines which cater for those generally interested in the pastime without aligning themselves to one or two factions only. Take, for example, the sailing and fishing fraternities. The specialist groups all have their own magazines and the more popular have more specialist support, but the general interest periodicals still maintain impartiality, and provide support and interest for minority groups within the hobby.

So it should be with computing. The Spectrum has an enormous user base and therefore has more user magazines than the Dragon, but for you to answer all complaints such as mine, with "We only print what we receive from readers and suppliers," is a cop-out, and a negation of your responsibility to the general computing public (made up of more non-Spectrum and non-C64 users than users of those two); otherwise change your name from Personal Computer News to Spectrum News.

After this week's copy of PCN (issue 103), I can find no justification in continuing to buy your magazine.

I think that the loss to both your circulation figures and the hobby as a whole is far greater than you imagine. I trust that future issues will correct the current imbalance, and that I and other disheartened computer afficionados will not have to abandon your otherwise excellent magazine.

C. B. Goldman, Welwyn, Herts

Like it or not, computing - unlike sailing or fishing - is a machine-specific hobby. As to issue 103, only six pages of the magazine featured Commodore 64 and Spectrum - the rest covered Apple, Atari, Amstrad, BBC and Electron - Ed.