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DKS survey results

Last spring a focus group was conducted for the Stater. As I planned my semester as editor, the results of the focus group were very helpful in determining what we could and should be doing better. I addressed a number of the issues and worked hard to fix or improve any I could, and I do believe we made a difference.

This fall, other focus groups were held and a random survey was conducted among students. I don’t actually know who initiated this follow-up, but I do like that I can see how my editorship impacted the paper. I never saw the raw data from the first one, but I was forwarded a copy of this semester’s raw data today. Some of it is pretty encouraging, some of it not so much.

  • more than 80% of respondents said the Stater is one of their news sources, with more than half saying they read it 3-4 times per week or every day.
  • an astounding (! to me at least) 85% don’t read StaterOnline. (Which makes me wonder who the people reading it are because we obviously can see the hits?)
  • 90% of respondents either “agree” or “strongly agree” that the Stater adequately covers campus news. (Other high scores, but not nearly as high, went to Kent area news, features, editorials, etc.)
  • no section had anywhere near a majority feel we didn’t adequately cover that segment of news. The closest one was international news, which 21% of respondents checked “disagree” on. (Which makes sense. We pretty much stick to Kent/KSU and only tangentially cover international affairs, except through wire on Nation & World.)
  • the overwhelming majority of respondents consider the DKS a “credible source of news/information.”

The open-ended questions were interesting as well. But I’m not going to quote them or anything here, except to say there were some things we obviously need to draw more attention to because a number of people mentioned things we *do* as “suggested improvements”… also there were quite a few responses that said “more of thus&so” with others saying “less of thus&so”, so that’s always to be taken with a grain of salt. Hopefully Seth and Rachel can take this even further next semester.

OK, I lied because I just saw this comment and it made me happy: I don’t want anything to change! I love it, I read it every day!”

All in all though, the results were quite favorable. And I’m happy with that.

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