HTML Preview Sample Newspaper Survey Questionnaire page number 1.
Subject ID# 000000
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David Etchison
ENGL 7301 Project 2
Southard
Newspaper Readership Survey
Do Readers Support Traditional Journalistic Values?
As newspaper readership shrinks, many papers assume they are losing readers to other media such as
television and the Internet. Many papers have tried to become more like television, focusing on more exciting
and colorful designs, shorter stories, and more entertaining content.
But others argue that trying to lure TV viewers to the newspaper is a hopeless cause and by trying to
do so, papers risk offending those who do want to read a newspaper. What if instead of trying to be more like
television, newspapers focused on becoming better newspapers? Perhaps readers really want to see
newspapers that do a better job of writing stories and reporting the news instead of offering news summaries,
shorter stories, and lifestyle and entertainment news.
Research Problem
The Middleburg Post
is a midsize metropolitan newspaper with a circulation of 200,000. Its
subscriber base, like that of the rest of the industry, has been shrinking over the past decade although
Middleburg has grown. Papers that have not changed with the time are losing readers, but so are the papers
that have. Marketing principles tell us that readers are choosing other media because those media better meet
their information needs.
Having had ten to fifteen years to watch what other newspaper have been doing, the Post
wonders if
it might not be better to put out a paper that appeals to people who buy newspapers rather than appealing to
those who don’t. The paper’s editors believe that moving in the direction of USA
Today and similar
publications will only alienate their existing customers without guaranteeing that that the paper will pick up
any new ones. The editors believe that people who subscribe to newspapers do so because they appreciate the
traditional strengths of newspaper. To that end, the paper has commissioned a survey to find out if people
who subscribe to the newspaper differ from those who don’t.
Research Question
Are newspaper subscribers more supportive of the values of traditional journalism than those who
don’t subscribe? The survey will try to answer this question by determining measuring the attitudes of
subscribers compared to those who do not subscribe.