You said it

NEA Today, Nov 1996 by Fischer, Bill

A few weeks ago, Rich Kronberg, a member of the NEA Board of Directors from Alaska, called. A couple of members had asked him how we know what readers like or dislike about NEA Today. He wanted to know if we have any way-other than letters or phone calls-to gauge reader opinion.

In case you were wondering that, too, here's some of the information I shared with Rich.

Each year, since NEA Today began in 1982, we've surveyed our members. First NEA Research selects a representative sampling of NEA members. Then a polling firm calls members and asks a lot of questions about their reading habits when it comes to NEA Today.

We tinker with the survey from year to year, but we always ask a couple of basic questions: How much time do you spend reading NEA Today, and what portion of NEA Today do you read?

So how does NEA Today stack up on these measures? Though there are slight dips and jumps year to year, survey results show that 60 percent of you spend 30 minutes on each issue of NEA Today, and average readers read more than 50 percent of the stories in each issue.

Those are good numbers for any publication. Still, our surveys show that some NEA members don't read much of NEA Today at all. With our new editorial and graphic design, we're out to change that.

Don't forget to vote on this month's Debate question on page 43. Last month's vote tally appears below.