EDITORIAL: Report on our questionnaire (06/27/04)

EDITORIAL

Report on our questionnaire

So, you think we forgot about our 70th anniversary questionnaire? Well, we most certainly did not!

Readers may recall that back in the fall of 2003 we published The Weekly Questionnaire in several issues, hoping to get your responses and reactions to the materials published in The Ukrainian Weekly. Titled "The Weekly Questionnaire: How are we doing?" the reader survey invited one and all - subscribers, regular readers and occasional readers - to share their opinions of the news and features they see in The Weekly and to tell us what they'd like to see more or less of. The questionnaire also solicited readers' answers to questions about what they read and enjoy most or least, as well as any additional comments and suggestions having to do with this paper. The deadline for responses was November 15, 2003.

The Weekly Questionnaire has become an anniversary tradition with us. Once every five years we try to gauge our readers' satisfaction in this manner. (For the record, our first survey was in 1981; subsequent surveys were conducted in 1992-1993, and 1998.) Finally (now that the holidays are long gone and our staff is complete), we had the opportunity to pore over the 2003 questionnaire responses and to take a close look at what you, Dear Readers, tried to communicate to us.

We received responses from 58 readers, plus one letter that was written by a reader who chose not to fill out the questionnaire form. (Unfortunately, the number of respondents is down from the 171 who participated in our 1998 readers' survey.) Thanks to those readers who chose to fill out the questionnaire's section on demographic information (or certain parts of it), we know a little something about who are respondents are.

Our respondents were from the following states: New Jersey, 9; New York, 9; Texas, 3; Pennsylvania, 3; Illinois, 3; Virginia, 3; Michigan, 3; Maryland, 3; California, 2; Arizona, 2; North Carolina, 2; Connecticut, 1; Florida, 1; Maine, 1; Massachusetts, 1; New Hampshire, 1; and Ohio, 1. In addition, there were two responses each from the Canadian provinces of Alberta and Ontario, and one response from Russia, from the city of Yekaterinburg.

The respondents included 51 subscribers and five regular readers; 26 members of the Ukrainian National Association and 30 non-members; and 37 males and 19 females. The age breakdown was as follows: age 70 and up, 15 respondents; 60-69, 12; 50-59, 17; 40-49, 5; under age 39, 5.

Eighteen of the respondents indicated that they had visited The Ukrainian Weekly's website, and an additional four said they regularly visited the site. Thirty said they had not logged on to www.ukrweekly.com.

The detailed results of the questionnaire's first section - where readers were asked to indicate on a scale from "much more" to "much less" how much coverage they would like to see devoted to various categories of news and features - appear in the chart on the bottom right of this page.

We also asked readers what they "regularly read." The following were the responses cited by five or more people: news from Ukraine, 15; Myron Kuropas ("Faces and Places"), 15; all, 13; letters to the editor, 10; editorials, 8; Newsbriefs, 8; columnists, 6; Andrew Fedynsky ("Perspectives"), 6; top news, 5; arts/culture, 5; books, 5;

"Focus on Philately," 5; and Preview of Events, 5.

Cited as "most enjoyed" were: Kuropas, 11; philately, 7; news from Ukraine, 5. Next in line with four responses each were: editorials, analysis by Taras Kuzio, Newsbriefs, columnists, letters, Orysia Tracz ("The things we do...") and Fedynsky.

The materials listed as "least enjoyed" were: sports, 8; Kuropas, 6; philately, 5; and UNA, 5. Four readers said none of The Weekly's materials could be listed as "least enjoyed."

Analyzing the responses, we saw that, for the most part, our readers are happy with The Weekly's content. True, some like sports and some do not; some love columns by Myron Kuropas, while others hate them. At the end of the day, however, one has to consider that no newspaper can please all its readers all of the time - no matter how hard it tries. Personal interests and personal tastes have much to do with what readers read. So, the best we can do is offer a variety and hope that there is something for everyone in the mix of materials published in The Weekly.

In conclusion, we wish to express our sincere appreciation to those of you who took time out of their busy schedules to help us evaluate our performance. Special thanks go to those who provided additional comments and shared their ideas - some of which have already been implemented and others that we will try to realize.

Finally, we ask all of you to keep on reading and keep in touch. We're only a letter, a fax, an e-mail or a phone call away.

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