Unbiased Surveys Credibly Prove Reader Preference and Increase Advertising
Sky & Telescope is a specialty consumer magazine aimed at amateur astronomy practitioners. Its closest competitor boasted greater circulation yet feedback from readers and marketers alike suggested that Sky & Telescope was heavily preferred among those who practice astronomy. 
As a topic, astronomy is very popular and this popularity could explain why one magazine enjoyed greater circulation. Sky & Telescope is written to appeal to astronomy practitioners, not armchair readers who have a more casual interest in the topic and are unlikely to buy much by way of astronomical equipment, such as telescopes.
If these theories could be validated using sound research methodologies, marketers would make the appropriate adjustments with their advertising investments. Towards this end, Sky & Telescope magazine conducted a series of surveys over the past decade with the goals of illustrating superior market reach and preference for Sky & Telescope’s editorial content over its closest competitor.
If Sky & Telescope simply focused on surveying its own readers to achieve these goals, the results to questions regarding publication preference would be perceived as biased, and as a result, not credible in an advertiser’s eyes. While there are survey methods that can help reduce the biased nature of a sample taken from a circulation list, the best solution is to use a third-party list of a relevant market.
To overcome the challenge of finding unbiased samples, Sky & Telescope worked with important advertisers relevant to the field. The advertisers were given the opportunity to include some questions in the survey while Sky & Telescope had the opportunity to survey a far broader market, whether or not respondents were magazine subscribers.
Bias was further removed from the survey by making sure that Sky & Telescope was not identified as the sponsor in any of the survey materials. With no sponsor identified, respondents remain objective, increasing the credibility of the results.
By conducting the surveys in this fashion, Sky & Telescope was able to prove its significance among buyers in the markets. As each survey ended, the results strengthened Sky & Telescope’s position as a valuable venue for advertising.
The marketing pieces produced to promote the survey results were key to maximizing the investment made on the surveys. Sky & Telescope created Market Intelligence Reports, click here to see a sample, that outlined the results and explained the significance of the method used to gather them. According to Peter Hardy, the advertising sales director at Sky & Telescope Media LLC, the surveys have “translated into significant market share increases, which makes them well worth the investment.”