(NOTE: This is part 3 of a series exploring the results of the 2004 CONTENTIOUS Reader Survey, which was completed by 157 respondents as of Aug. 18, 2004. See the complete index for more survey results. Additional results will be published in future entries.)
Question 3 of my reader survey asked:
Why do you read CONTENTIOUS?
Here’s what the 156 people who chose to answer this question said:
- 64.3%: Professional interest
- 48.7%: Personal interest
- 17.9%: Academic interest
- 5.1%: Other
Yes, I know that adds up to more than 100%. Respondents could check all options they felt applied, but most checked only one or two options.
What those numbers mean…
It appears that people overwhelmingly read CONTENTIOUS in order to support their careers in one way or another (professional interest). I’m glad to see that, because it implies that I’m succeeding in making the information presented here practical, timely, and relevant to my readers.
This clarifies to me that CONTENTIOUS happens to be in a uniquely fortuitous position to assist a large community. Let me explain:
When I first launched it in the late 1990s, my initial audience for this publication was primarily writers, editors, and publishers who wanted to better understand and leverage online media. Back then, online media was very new, pretty geeky, and largely alien territory for my fellow writers and editors.
I believe that situation has changed. Online media is now a decade or more old. Many aspects of it (especially the web and e-mail publishing) have become mainstream and established. Most communication professionals have largely gotten over the “gee whiz” hungry, incredulous phase of expanding their careers to include online media work.
When I relaunched CONTENTIOUS as a blog last year and expanded the focus to address a wider range of communication, media, and technology topics, I frankly expected to lose most of my original audience of writer types. I assumed, wrongly, that most of my original readers would prefer that I keep writing on exactly the same topics I’d written about before – that they would be put off by the new topics (webfeeds, content and knowledge management, XML, etc.).
Although I did lose a portion of my readers for that reason, I was surprised that so many of my readers found their interests and work moving in the same direction as mine. Plus I attracted a whole new audience of techno-minded folk who are becoming more interested in communication issues. This blog seems to be in a unique position to build bridges between those two groups – a theme that is starting to emerge as a core mission for CONTENTIOUS in coming years.
On a personal note, it’s reassuring to consider that maybe I’m not really straying ever further out of the editorial mainstream. Maybe I’m actually being carried by a tide. Pretty cool.
…I was surprised that more than twice as many readers (48.7%) reported a personal interest in CONTENTIOUS than an academic one (17.9%). This surprised me because so much of my reader mail comes from scholars, educators, and students. But, thinking it over, I expect that this reflects the appeal of this weblog’s informal, conversational tone.
So what about that mysterious “Other” category? Here’s what those readers had to say about why they read CONTENTIOUS:
Most of that seems to indicate the appeal of high-quality content – which longtime readers know has been a favorite theme of mine.
…My favorite “other” response, though, was this: “Proud father of the smartest person on the web.” Awwww, thanks Dad! You don’t know how much your praise means to me. You’re a tough act to follow!
(NEXT: The Power of Links…)
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