The Results Are In

As many of our readers are aware, we recently sent out a survey in an effort to get a better sense of what readers are thinking as we prepare to launch a new—and much improved—website. We were pleasantly surprised to have heard from more than 200 respondents, the vast majority of which were quite enthusiastic about recent improvements in our print and digital publications, and also expressed a true and invigorating interest in our efforts going forward.

As expected, our readers are older, and perhaps wiser, than the general demographic; nearly half (47%) are 65 years old and above, with another 27% between the ages of 55 and 64. Twenty-two percent of respondents are aged 35-54, and 5% are between the ages of 18 and 34. It is a well-educated group, with 43% having obtained Master’s or Doctorate degrees and 34% a Bachelor’s degree. Nineteen percent have some college and/or professional qualifications, while 4% have no post-secondary experience.

Not surprisingly, 74% of respondents are full-time Otsego County residents but include former residents (10%), part-time residents (7%) and regular visitors (4%). Sixty-four percent read our print editions (78% each week and 22% occasionally); 86% visit our AllOtsego.com website. Forty-two percent receive the editions by mail; 25% pick them up at our retail locations. Fifty-one percent visited the website on a daily basis, with 10% visiting several times a day and 32% once or twice a week. Twenty-six percent of website visitors “often” read entire articles; 33% do so “occasionally;” 28% “skim” articles and 13% browse headlines without clicking through to the story itself.

Respondents overwhelmingly seek to access news; 98% seek out news daily, and 75% check for news “several times per day.” Local news topped their interest (79%) along with regional news (62%) and national news (74%). Somewhat less popular with respondents were international news (42%), health and education news (31%), arts and culture news (30%) and political news (26%).

When asked where they access news, a majority of respondents cited newspaper websites (62%) and print newspapers (51%) as their primary source. Less utilized sources included network news (47%), 24-hour news channels (38%), radio (35%) and that notoriously questionable news source, social media (32%).

When asked what their primary sources for local news and information were, 85% cited local newspapers and their websites; an additional 15% accessed local news through the Facebook postings of the local papers.

In terms of what is of most interest to respondents either in print or online, local news tops the list at 87% followed by obituaries (59%), people and human-interest stories (52%), editorials (45%), letters to the editor (42%), event listings (41%) and columns (36%). Only 4% tackle the weekly crossword puzzle. Asked what type of articles they’d like to see more of, respondents cited arts (39%), business (28%), photography (14%) and sports (14%).

When asked whether they had a paid subscription to either the print or digital editions, 60% of respondents said they do not, while 40% said they subscribe to one or the other, of which 14% subscribe to both. Oddly, when the whole group was asked if they would recommend a subscription to others, a full 94% said that yes, they would.

Those who do subscribe tend to be faithful; 18% have held their subscriptions for 20 years or longer, with 13% subscribing for 11-20 years, 15% for six to 10 years, 40% for two to five years and 14% with new subscriptions of a year or less.

These results have been extremely helpful in our drive to improve our relevance in the community and in constructing our new website, and we most sincerely thank all respondents for their engagement and insightful comments. It really does take a village to make a local newspaper a meaningful community resource, and as we continue our efforts at improvement we are eternally grateful to know that so many have our future success at heart.