Responses To Our First Reader Survey

Gentle readers,>

As you know, we recently asked you to take out a readers survey. We thought you might be interested to know the results.

We established the survey in order to help us fine tune a few things about Rockville Central. Your input matters a lot, and there is a lot we plan to listen to. 103 people completed the survey, roughly double what I initially expected.

Anyone who is interested can see the full results here.

Here are the main findings:

• Overall, people who responded to the survey give Rockville Central high marks. On a scale of 1-5, we average 4.51, which leads me to think that we’re basically on the right track. Of course, people who don’t like Rockville Central probably did not respond, so this “overall grade” is among the least useful questions! Still . . . it feels good.

• Your favorite features on Rockville Central are, in descending order: general news about Rockville (4.23/5), city election coverage (4.09), recaps of community meetings (4.06), contributor opinions (3.93), and the weekly events listings (3.87). The high rating people gave to City election coverage surprised me a bit. I do get emails from people who think we are covering to much of that boring politics – but it seems they may just be a vocal minority.
• The qualities of Rockville Central that you most value are: that we are upfront about our opinions (4.12/5), that we try to be unbiased (4.06), we cover a wide range of subjects (4.00), and that we are Rockville-only (3.98). Here again was a pleasant surprise that placed a number of emails I get in context. I hear from some people that we our coverage is “slanted” which hurts because we try to be very much the opposite. It is gratifying to see that the vast majority of respondents appreciate our attempts to be down-the-middle and also to be upfront with our own opinions. One other surprise in this question: the relatively low weight people give to the fact that Rockville Central is volunteer (3.24). When we started, I thought that was something that added to the trust that people might put in Rockville Central. In fact, it appears people don’t really give a hoot about that, ranking it next to last (just above “quirky and zany,” which got 3.23 out of 5).
• As you know, we recently changed our email system. I’ve gotten about equal numbers of complaints and “thank yous” for the switch. According to the survey, for most people, our new system with one email per day with links is best, but the plurality is not large (44.3%). Scanning the comments, I can see that people strongly prefer whatever their preference happens to be when it comes to email notification. People also would like to be offered more choices when it come to email receipt. We’re working on that, but it appears that overall the new system is working OK for now. We’re going to keep it as is for a bit more and keep seeing how it goes. (There are a lot of factors that go into this email question, more than you’d imagine. Please trust we are thinking everything through, even if the result is not what you would prefer! I am skeptical of our ability to offer email choice anytime soon, I will be upfront about that.)
• Some people don’t like the POTD (Picture Of The Day). I was aghast to see the POTD ranked near the bottom of people’s favorite features (3.46/5)! Scandal! This was a surprise, because I get a lot of emails and comments from people about how they like the POTD, and we also get a steady stream of POTD submissions. So this is an area where I am going to just willfully and capriciously ignore what everyone says and keep posting a picture every weekday morning, as we have since the beginning of Rockville Central. It just means too much to me, as it is something I look forward to each morning! But now I understand that it is not for everybody!
• Rockville Rocks! When asked about some hypothetical “new ideas,” people expressed a lot of interest in seeing a concert that featured all-Rockville performers. 61.8% said they’d be interested. (In that vein, go see the East Rockville Pumphouse Open Mic on Saturday.) That’s something we will definitely examine putting together. In addition – and this was a bit surprising to me—large numbers of survey respondents expressed interest in hearing from speakers on issues (55.1%), and engaging in small group dialogue on issues (56.2%). This is something we will also definitely look into, and you may begin to see some lectures or forums in the near future.

Overall, there are three chief lessons I take from reading all the responses:

1) The personal voice is important. We don’t need to be wacky and zany, but people appreciate that there is a very clear narrative voice that is not pretending to be omniscient. It adds to the trust people place in us.

2) Stay balanced. One of Rockville Central’s chief qualities in the eyes of readers is that it is always trying to be fair. That people see that is a precious thing and not to be squandered. We must always strive to maintain fairness. Yes we will make mistakes and yes, sometimes people will disagree with us when we express an opinion. But we must be vigilant about our openness and even-handedness.

3) Cover all of Rockville. People love that we cover Rockville only – but they want us to cover all of Rockville. Some comments took us to task for focusing more on “west side” issues and giving “east side” issues less play. That is an absolutely fair criticism and it is one I am always trying to work against. I have varying degrees of success in that department, but please know we are committed to including all of Rockville in all we do. I happen to live on the west side and so that is what I see every day – I know that brings with it a responsibility to look harder elsewhere but sometimes I fall down. We rely on readers like you to both catch us when we are not walking our talk – and also to help us with tips, colums, and co
verage. Please keep us informed about what you know is going on throughout Rockville, so we can pass it on.

I was humbled and moved as I read the survey responses, because it was clear that many, many of you who took the time to respond see Rockville Central as “yours.” That means so much and I will always try to respect that.

Let me just add one last thing.

Since we began, I have seen Rockville Central as a volunteer-only endeavor. However, as I mention above, this is not as highly valued by readers as I thought it was. In fact, some commentors let us know they would like to see ads for local businesses, and would be interested in seeing Rockville Central becoming more self supporting. I am not saying this is definitely the case, but I am beginning to think that may be the next step for us, to “grow up” a bit and let Rockville Central become something that stands more on its own legs.

I am terribly anxious about doing that, because I don’t want to throw away something that is working pretty well as it is. But there seems to be a credibility issue at work here. As Rockville Central has grown, I get the feeling people want to see it become even more of an “institution” that they can depend on.

So that’s something to watch for. If you see us begin to accept advertising or do other things that look “official” – please know that they are in the spirit of building on what we have, and trying to do what is best for our readers and the community.

Thank you.

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