Editorial Audits
What is it?
These studies enable you to understand what your readers need and expect from your publication. This understanding is key to offering content that keeps readers coming back for more. In general, there are three types of Editorial Audits:
- Stand-alone studies are not linked to a specific issue and establish readership habits: time spent reading, readership of last four issues, pass-along, topic interest, etc.
- Specific issue studies allow you to collect feedback on actual articles and columns in the issue.
- On-going tracking studies comprehensively track responses to the same set of readership questions over time and collect feedback to specific content.
Why conduct an Editorial Audit?
Relying on letters to the editor as the basis for gauging reader satisfaction is risky, since you're making decisions based on the opinions of a few squeaky wheels whose feelings probably don't reflect those of the majority of readers.
The actionable data provided from the responses of a representative sample of your circulation enables you to confidently shape content that meets your circulation's information needs.
What about lapsed subscribers?
If your goal is to determine why subscriptions have lapsed, a slightly different questionnaire can be used to survey lapsed subscribers. You can also ensure that any changes you make to increase retention won't be done at the expense of current subscribers.