Recently we gave our Packet subscribers the chance to ask questions to me, head of content Emma Ferguson, on anything they liked – whether it was about a local issue, our news coverage, or how we make decisions in our newsroom.

As always, we want you to be involved in everything we do, so thank you for sending in your questions.

These varied from website queries to article comments and keeping the newspapers current in the ever-evolving news climate.

See below for my answers to what you asked:

“Why are there no longer any occasional freebies given away with the hard copy of the Helston Packet and Falmouth Packet, which incidentally I purchase each week?”

We do still run these promotions occasionally at independent retailers, subject to resources and staffing. By coincidence there are two running only this week - one in Falmouth and one in Helston.

“Why is the faulty thumbs up facility, which allows multiple votes by one person on any one post, not rectified, or better still, not removed?"

I have taken advice from our website team on this one. This facility is not faulty and works as intended. Comment voting is intended to be a fun and engaging feature, which allows people to highlight the comments that they think deserve merit and register their agreement.

There is currently no prevention of multiple votes - you can vote again every time you refresh the page. Any attempts to prevent this happening could still be circumvented by someone determined to do so, so we believe that the additional complexity required to change this - which might increase page load times or cause other problems - would not outweigh negatives at present.

However, if you have very strong feelings over why you believe this is the wrong approach please email me, or use the Contact Us section of our website, so I can pass this on to our website team.

“Why are there so few comments on your items compared with [other local news sites]?”

Readers are always welcome to comment on any news articles they find of interest, although we do ask they adhere to our ‘house rules’ – including no comments containing abuse, threats, insults or bullying.

We have also introduced user verification to make sure that bots don't comment on our stories, only real people.

We believe this keeps our comments section a safe and pleasant place to be.

“While appreciating the history of the newspaper name, do you think an amendment to recognise the modern trans-Cornwall coverage could be more successful?”

It is true that the ‘world is getting smaller’ and people travel further than they used to, meaning there is often more interest in news from areas outside of where they live. We try to reflect this in our coverage, by featuring some articles that we hope will be of interest to all readers, not just those who happen to live in that specific locality.

However, Falmouth and Helston are two towns that remain part of our core coverage area. As such the Falmouth Packet and Helston Packet have dedicated pages for news specifically focussed on these areas, so retaining their separate identities on the news stands continues to be relevant.

In addition, our history is really important to us - the Falmouth Packet has been reporting on local news since 1858 - and we believe this helps set us apart from other titles.

Thank you so much for your continued support of the Packet. If you have any questions at any time, please email me, send in a letter to the newsroom or get in touch via the Contact Us section of our website.