March 2, 2004

EDITORIAL
Survey Says…

ByGeorge! Completes First Phase in a Comprehensive Reader Survey

By Thomas Kohout, ByGeorge! Editor

Not too long ago while I was reporting on a story, a source asked me how many people read ByGeorge! I fielded the question with the well-practiced confidence of a Major League Baseball infielder — ByGeorge! publishes 14,000 copies 16 times a year, with the majority of our 8,000-person direct mailing going to full- and part-time faculty and staff as well as parents of freshmen and transfer students, the Society of the Emeriti, a few alumni, media outlets and District of Columbia officials. Unfortunately the response I got from those figures left me feeling more like Bill Buckner than Alex Rodriguez.

“That’s who gets ByGeorge!, but who reads it?”

I was speechless. My first thought was “well, all of them,’” but I knew better. Certainly many people read the paper, we regularly receive calls and E-mails about our content and on several occasions we’ve had stories picked up by other media outlets and published well beyond the reaches of Foggy Bottom. Over the past five years ByGeorge! has seen a dramatic transformation, boosting the paper’s frequencey by more than 60 percent, increasing circulation, expanding coverage, adding color, and making the paper easier to read. The changes even brought ByGeorge! outside recognition, earning a bronze medal for Best Overall Internal Audience Tabloid in the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education’s 2002 Circle of Excellence awards. Of course people read ByGeorge! But still the questions dogged me, “Who does read ByGeorge!, how many read the paper and do they like it?” Those questions resulted in the most comprehensive reader survey in the 16-year history of ByGeorge!

Starting in December the paper sent out E-mail invitations linking more than 2,100 randomly-selected GW employees to an online survey covering everything from who reads ByGeorge! to what should be included in a faculty/staff newspaper. From that sample, roughly a sixth of the University employee community, ByGeorge! received 233 responses for a rate of about 11 percent. I’m told that’s outstanding.

Looking Good
The key question was right up front, “How often do you read ByGeorge!?” Survey says… 49 percent of respondents either read every issue or almost every issue, with another 26 percent opening the paper whenever they spot a new issue on the stands. More than half of those surveyed said they read at least half of every issue and in those issues readers focused on the front page stories, news, features, Kudos and Dateline most heavily. Fifty-six percent said they felt ByGeorge! had positively affected their perception of GW and 64 percent said the newspaper made them feel at least somewhat more connected to the University community. Best of all, the spread between satisfied and dissatisfied for topics such as content, accuracy and professionalism was quite wide — content: 53 percent satisfied, 9 percent dissatisfied; accuracy: 36 percent satisfied, less than 1 percent dissatisfied; and professionalism: 53 percent satisfied, less than 1 percent dissatisfied.

Room For Improvement
The bad news ByGeorge! received was that roughly 8 percent of those surveyed never read the paper and 11 percent are dissatisfied with the level of usefulness of the content they do read. Across the board, readers want more: more faculty, staff and student accomplishments; more campus events coverage; more local government and community news; and more information about employee benefits and job listings.

Readers don’t want more of everything, however. Regular or potential departments such as sports, “Word 4 Word,” classified advertisements and obituaries garnered little interest among respondents. “From the Airwaves” received the lowest totals with fewer than 3 percent having any interest in the department. We heard you and we’ve already begun making adjustments.

Perhaps one of the most effective ways of improving the paper is increasing the level of community participation. The survey uncovered that 76 percent of the community has never contributed to ByGeorge! That’s bad news because without the participation of the campus community ByGeorge! can never truly become the vibrant, one-stop source for information GW employees need and deserve.

What’s Next
This quantitative analysis is only the first step in the process of making ByGeorge! a better publication. Over the next several weeks volunteers from our survey group will participate in focus groups to provide ByGeorge! with a more complete picture of what the newspaper could be and how we should go about getting there. We’ll ask group members to consider everything about ByGeorge! from how the paper is organized to how we can boost community participation to what we can do to improve the usefulness of the content. With this information as well as input from colleagues at similar faculty/staff newspapers across the country, we will work to develop the most effective information tool possible at The George Washington University.

And the Winners Are…
Jerome Conley, senior research scientist with GW’s Institute for Crisis, Disaster and Risk Management, and Marie Price, associate professor of geography and international affairs, were chosen in a random drawing from among the 233 participants in the ByGeorge! reader survey to receive $50 gift certificates from the GW Bookstore courtesy of the bookstore and Follett Higher Education Group.

Send feedback to: bygeorge@gwu.edu