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So far, only 20 of the questionnaires sent out with the December magazine have been filled in and returned. This is rather disappointing, as 280 magazines are printed. This means that, statistically, each returned questionnaire represents the opinions of 14 readers. Of those people who have returned questionnaires, 10% thought that the design of the covers is 'Fair', 70% thought it was 'Good' while 20% rated it as 'Excellent'. The General Design of the magazine was considered to be 'Good' by 70%, only 'Fair' by 25%, and only 1 vote (5%) for 'Excellent'. The voting for the Magazine Content was more encouraging for the Magazine Committee - 10% for 'Fair', 60% for 'Good' and 30% for 'Excellent'. The second section of the questionnaire dealt with what readers preferred to see in the magazine. All (the whole 20) questionnaires returned were examined, and, for each one, 14 points were given to the subject given position 1, 13 to the next, and so on, until the least-liked subject received only 1 point. The results of this exercise were as follows: -
Religious interest came out on top, as befits a church magazine, while those that came in positions 3 to 8 showed that people are interested in knowing what is happening at St George's. General interest items at second position is only to be expected. People do like to read about these sort of things. Children's items coming down the list at position 9 must reflect the average age of the readership, while the remaining 5 items can give the committee some indication of where the interest of the readers lie, or do not, as the case may be. The third section of the questionnaire dealt with the readability of the magazine, amongst other things. Five people who replied would like to see a magazine produced with bigger print. Of these, four would be prepared to pay extra for the larger magazine, and one would be prepared to accept a smaller magazine at the same price. This information places the Magazine Committee in an invidious position. While 25% of the respondents would like to see a larger type face used in the magazine, this amounts to only five people in the whole readership. On the one hand, 25% is a reasonable number whose opinions should be respected, but 5 in over 250 is less than 2% of the readership. Readers were asked to give any comments on the magazine. Only six such comments were received. Does this mean that the majority of the readership are completely satisfied with the magazine? One suggestion was that the Parish Calendar should be on page 1 instead of an advertisement. The committee discussed this, and decided that, because this is not possible due to editorial matters, the Parish Calendar should be printed on the inside cover. The outside cover was considered, but since space is required on this page for editorial matter, there would not be sufficient room for the Calendar. The Calendar for the March issue was therefore placed on the inside back cover. This position will give room for expansion onto the back cover, if required, and is in a position that people will soon recognize. It was suggested by some respondents that articles, in some cases certain articles, are too long. This is entirely subjective. Any article on a subject that you are not interested in is too long. An article on a subject that you find interesting may not give as much information as you would like, and hence would benefit by being longer. The Magazine Committee do not commission articles. They rely on people to produce articles voluntarily. Every magazine is filled with items that are available. And the length of any article is left entirely to the author. "Any chance of a Children's Corner?". Of course there is. The committee have considered this in the past, but all attempts to find an author for such a column have failed utterly. If anyone out there feels inclined to offer their suggestions as to what such an article should include, be not backward in coming forward. And any offers to write such a column would surely not be refused. The suggestion that 'Garden Gossip' should be replaced by a simple Garden Hints and advice appropriate to the month was debated by the committee, and it was decided that if anyone was willing to write such an article it would be included. The present writer of 'Garden Gossip' declined because he was more interested in plants and gardens and gardeners than in gardening per se. However, if anyone would like to contribute a Garden Diary, you can be assured that no reasonable offer will be refused. One person suggested that the magazine could be increased in size (and price) without necessarily increasing the font size used. This, again, is something that the committee has discussed, but once again it depends on the contributors. If more contributors offered more articles it would be possible. But this is only one reply out of twenty from two hundred and eighty. The last suggestion that came in was about people writing about their holidays. It was also suggested that the author could make suggestions about the holiday - is it suitable for children, are animals allowed, the best time of the year, what the food is like. The committee felt that such a thing would not be the right thing. After all, one man's meat is another man's poison. People have written about their holidays, sometimes at great length, but a holiday is a personal thing. Information concerning places for holidays can best be found in brochures, from travel agents and holiday programmes on TV. One thing that the committee would appreciate is some more returned questionnaires. It is impossible to supply a magazine that people appreciate if those same people refuse to say what they would like. Many times in the past the author of 'Garden Gossip' has asked for suggestions for subjects for articles. In the first seven years he received only one. With this sort of interest authors find it very difficult to continue to offer articles, since they have no idea what interests the readers. So why don't you spend five minutes filling out a questionnaire and making suggestions. After all, it is your Church magazine. And if you don't vote, you can't complain. Bill Hutchings |
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page last updated 1 APRIL 2001 |
