Thank you to all who recently completed the community survey. This survey was important for us at the paper to help form plans for the future, to identify areas that need attention, and to garner ideas for how to improve our service to the community.
The response was great, with 853 entries received to date. This was the first survey conducted since 2018, and while some of the questions were similar, there was additional focus placed on questions that will help us grow.
Respondents provided answers to 22 questions that included demographic information, reading habits, topics that are of most and least interest, and ratings on different aspects of the newspaper.
While there is quite a bit of analysis left on exploring comments, suggestions, and criticism, here are some of the results collected to date.
Of the 853 people who took the survey, 677 or 79.4% stated that they were from Lincoln County, with Bristol residents taking the lead providing 100 responses.
A question on reading frequency asked how often The Lincoln County News was read, with choices of weekly, a few times a month, once a month, or never. The weekly reader was the option most selected with 84.3%, while 11.7% read the paper a few times a month. Less than 1 percent chose the never option, and 3.2% were once a month readers.
Another question about reading was based on the approach to reading the newspaper. The majority of respondents selected a cover-to-cover approach with 50.8% of the tally. Casual reading over time was chosen by 14.5%. Items of interest received 29.9%, and scanning headlines received the balance of 4.8%.
The tenth question of the survey asked about the price of the newspaper, and provided the newsstand price as well as subscription prices. Most of the respondents, with 87% of the total, answered that the price was fair. The next highest response was too inexpensive with 8.3% while 4.7% felt the paper was too expensive.
A similar response was received from a question about the amount of content within The Lincoln County News. Some of the respondents (2.3%) thought there was too much content, while a larger number (9.7%) felt there was too little content, but a majority (87.9%) felt it was just enough.
The survey next asked which newspaper topics were of most and least interest. For these questions, responders could chose one or more topics, or provide their own responses. The top five categories that were of most interest were breaking news (650), obituaries (609), features (576), Character of the County (518), and letters to the editor (515). There were also five responders who answered all parts as most interesting.
The aspects of the paper that responders had the least interest in were TV Guide (622), the church page (417), and sports (363). A graphical representation of responses to the major categories is shown on page 16.
Responses to a question about gaps in coverage received 16.2% stating that there were gaps in the coverage while 46.9% stated there were not gaps. The balance of 36.9% stated that they did not know.
Another question asked survey responders to rate six categories of the newspaper as excellent, above average, average, below average or poor. The six categories were journalism, photography, print quality, accuracy, relevance, and trust level with the newspaper.
Across all categories, more than 73% responders rated the newspaper higher than average, with fewer than 3% rating the newspaper below average. The highest scoring category was trust level with us, which received 48% excellent and 35.4% above average for total of 83.4% above average, compared to 2.6% that rated lower than average.
Another measure of importance to the paper was how the community viewed objectivity. A question asked respondents to provide a rating of objective, conservative bias, liberal bias, very conservative bias, or very liberal bias to both the overall aspect of the newspaper and for staff objectivity.
For responses on objectivity of the overall newspaper, 80.2% provided a rating of objective, 10% provided a rating of conservative bias, 7% provided a rating of liberal bias, 1.1% as very conservative, and 1.8% as very liberal. This question was asked during the 2018 survey as well, and the percentage of objectivity increased from 77.2% to 80.2%.
Responses were similar on staff objectivity, with 81.9% choosing the objective rating, 7.3% conservative bias, 8% liberal bias, 1.2% very conservative, and 1.5% very liberal.
As we work to digest the comments, and use the rest of this information to plan for the future, we will keep you updated on any plans for changes. The staff of The Lincoln County News thanks you for your time and responses to the community survey.
