PHUKET is growing rapidly to the point where the island has three regular, frequent publications in English as well as several television and radio options for news and entertainment.

Here's Phuketwan MediaWATCH, a lively take on what's happening that is aimed at keeping island residents, visitors, would-be holidaymakers and advertisers in touch with Phuket's growing information world.

The Phuket Gazette: (Weekly newspaper. Price 25 baht, 52 pages with events calendar insert) 'Fire attacker back in Patong,' is the lead story on Page One of the Gazette, and along with 'Kamala hillside projects halted' it also spills across to Page Two. Several major construction projects are named as being under review as land title deeds dating back severals years come under investigation. 'Patong Hospital faces staff crisis' leads Page Three and is the topic for the Editorial. Inside Story looks at the war on fake designer goods again. The Vegetarian Festival is marked with a single-page guide and the process of adopting a pet through the PAWS group also takes out a page. The owners of Patong's 2 Black Sheep Bar also make for a two-page profile. On Letters, gremlins appear to have been let loose. Two letters have no author and the page appears to have gone to press without being read for sense. Topics include 'No foreign monkeys in Phuket' and 'A comedy of crimes in Phuket's paper.' First Person is an article on the Nanotechnology Conference, which employs extremely large type.

Phuket Bulletin: (Monthly magazine. Price: 100 baht, 98 pages, bilingual) The Bulletin (motto ''We Record Our Time'') has been around for several years but recently downsized to a smaller, more modern format. It continues to carry the portrait of a well-known local on the cover, featuring Governor Niran Kalayanamit on the September issue. Because the text is often in both English and Thai, projection of topics becomes more complicated. Yet there's always something of interest to find in The Bulletin, especially when it comes to in-depth reports on Phuket's history and culture. The difficulty is in making the magazine look appealing when the designer has twice as much text to place on the pages. Some of the reports are not replicated in English, so the magazine probably represents better value to Thai readers.

Coming Events: The Vegetarian Festival begins on September 29 followed by the Fringe Festival on October 4 at the Playhouse in Patong and the Octoberfest until October 5 at Movenpick in Karon.