Publisher’s Notebook: Reader feedback is valuable

Published 12:30 am Saturday, December 21, 2019

Thank you for reading this column.

According to a National Newspaper Association readership survey conducted last year, 60% read their local paper for the editorials or letters to the editor somewhat often to very often. Which means that 40% don’t often read the Opinion page and aren’t likely to read this column. And that’s OK.

Readers find the content they are interested in when they browse the newspaper, and not all readers are interested in the same things. That was evident in the comments of The Astorian reader survey we conducted about the Sports Extra section we published on Saturdays during football season.

I shared the results of that reader survey in my last column — 37% of respondents said they didn’t read a single issue of the nine Sports Extra sections we published. And that’s OK, too. The 63% who did read the section shared their suggestions and comments about the sports section, and sports coverage in general.

We also asked for feedback on general improvements to the paper. It was not a surprise that respondents didn’t agree on what they’d like to see in our pages. Some of the responses:

“Continue Sports Extra!!”

“Eliminate it (Sports Extra) and the other useless supplements you’ve added.”

“There’s too much space and resources dedicated to sports. It’s not journalism, it’s entertainment pages and I read the paper for news!!”

“I would like to be able to read the Dear Annie column in every paper instead of once or twice a month.”

“Inclusion of more national news on weekends would be an improvement in the paper.”

“More local news and features instead of national news.”

“Less articles pulled off the wire. OPB, Oregonian, Capital Press.”

“Eliminate sports and add more state or national news.”

“Open your eyes folks and put in some important news. Australia is burning up … so is California.”

Although readers don’t agree on what should be included in our pages — or what should be left out — our priority is and will continue to be local news. Despite requests that we eliminate sports, national news, wire and comics we will still include those things in The Astorian.

A community newspaper should offer a variety of content so that readers can discover things they didn’t know that they wanted to know until they read it in the paper.

Survey respondents did offer good suggestions for improvements.

“Educate readers to use online edition.”

“If information about all events could be posted earlier, it would help those of us whose schedules are slammed. Try harder to get out of the box and do more articles that include those not seen as much.”

“Thursday events in the Thursday paper are useless! Mail delivery is an improvement.”

“I would prefer that sports are inside and articles carried over from front page are put on back to make it easier to continue reading.”

“Love to see local stories about what is happening, but wonder about all kinds of things I never read about. Wonderful old boat in Youngs Bay last week, what was it and why?”

“I get overwhelmed by the political dramas, but am happy you cover them as they are important. Especially the local things. I wish there were more community activities listed like literary and arts or wildlife activities and engagement.”

“Stop with the stories that flow through several pages. Give us more, shorter stories.”

“Suggest that the digital edition be revised for easy usage and readability. Look at nyt.com, wsj.com or ft.com for examples. Also … if you elect to continue left leaning editorials and/or copies from other papers, please also provide opinions and news from the right for a balanced approach. Lastly, how about a financial section covering Northwest stocks and business information.”

“Add more and different content. Too much repeat and you need more articles. Better editing to reduce the size of the stories so more stories can be added.”

“I’d like to make a suggestion about the Coast Weekend; I miss the weekly restaurant reviews; I especially liked it when the author was unknown; it would also be nice to have movie reviews.”

“I wonder if it would ever be possible to run a story or two about life on the street, the homeless in Clatsop Co. like who are they? Where did they come from and what help do they need to survive.”

“More attention to regular summaries of the decisions of public boards and bodies. We need that info to be informed voters.”

“I especially like the stories about individual people in our community, including people in new positions or businesses, or people, like Liisa Penner, who have been serving us for decades.”

You might have noticed that some suggestions we’ve already started working on, while others are in the works. Feedback is valuable and I’d like to thank readers who offered to share their opinions.

Our challenge at The Astorian is to strike a balance for all readers so that everyone can find content that interests them. Not every reader will appreciate a budget hearing story, or comics, or national news or sports. That’s OK.

We hope that once in a while you’ll find something that makes you chuckle, or makes you smarter about your community, or gives you something to talk about with your kids over dinner. Odds are that at least 60% of you will.

Have more ideas to share?

Send them to kborgen@dailyastorian.com