LAKELAND – Results of a readership survey taken last spring of the “Florida United Methodist Review” offer insight into the bimonthly newspaper’s readership, but do not offer enough direction to make significant changes to the piece, say Florida United Methodist Communications’ volunteer team members.

“The surveying of a statistically representative sample of the lay and clergy leadership in the Florida Conference to evaluate the “Review” did reveal insights into the readership and value,” said Ron Pecora, chair of the conference’s communications team and owner of Pecora & Guitar Inc. public relations consulting group in Winter Park, in the survey’s executive summary section. “The results did not, however, provide enough information with which to begin revamping the current piece or developing new ones.”

The results indicated the need to survey the “people in the pew” to get a broader perspective and sampling representative of the United Methodist Church as a whole, according to Pecora.

“Although those surveyed indicated satisfaction with the format and general content, which may seem to reveal everything is fine, that assumption is short-sighted,” Pecora said. “It is believed this is simply due to the lack of exposure to a higher impact publication produced by the conference office.”

Based on the results, the committee recommended that no significant changes be made to the existing piece and that development of a new publication tailored to non-leadership laity be postponed until input is obtained from a representative group of laity of all demographics.

Additional research will be done through a conference-wide communications audit scheduled to be completed by April 1999.

The following information was gathered through surveys completed by 287 readers of “Florida United Methodist Review,” 3.5 percent of the total readership. Additional surveys were received after the deadline date and could not be included in the survey analysis. Percentages are based on the number of responses to each question and may not total 100 percent.

Age of Readers Who Responded

Review Statistics

• Of those surveyed, 23 percent subscribe to the “Review;” the church provides it to 74 percent.
• The majority (60 percent) spent 16 minutes or more reading the last issue of the “Review;” 35 percent spent six to 15 minutes; 2 percent spent less than five minutes reading it.
• Of the 12 articles or sections in the “Review,” the most widely read is Local Church News (88 percent). The Editorial section is next with 73 percent, followed by Letters to the Editor (67 percent), Church Development (66 percent), The UMC Around the World (61 percent), From the Council Director (60 percent), Bishop’s Corner (55 percent), FaithWatch (54 percent), Here I Stand (52 percent) and Cartoon(s) (51 percent). The Opportunities and Classified sections are read the least at 40 percent and 37 percent.
• The majority (62 percent) of readers read the entire article or section, while 37 percent skim the article, and 7 percent read only the headline or opening. The majority (75 percent) also feels the length of the articles is just right. Only 8 percent feel the articles are too long, and 1 percent feel they are too short.
• Readers liked that the “Review” included local issues, linked the local church to the “big picture,” offered insight into what’s happening in the conference and local churches, is a communications link between conference and laity, provided articles on issues facing the church and those addressing families and children in need, and “reads like a paper.”
• Readers wanted to change the “Review” by including articles on more spiritual news; information relating to youth and young adult issues; support of laity; more local opportunities to serve/local issues; focusing on the smaller church and children’s issues; successful evangelism; more controversial topics — abortion, death penalty, gay issues; new conversion testimonies; changing theological positions; and family crises — addiction, adultery, abuse, divorce.

Format

• Half (50 percent) of the readers prefer to receive the “Review” as a newspaper format. Others would prefer to see the information in a news brief (22 percent), a newsletter (17 percent), a magazine (13 percent) or on the internet (11 percent). Only 1 percent would want to hear the “Review” on audio tape.

Cost

• The majority (58 percent) of the respondents would be willing to pay $15 per year for a subscription to the “Review.” The 24 percent who said they would not pay stated that it should be provided at no cost, they could not afford it, it should be revamped or it needed to provide better national news.
• When asked what cost per issue they would agree to pay, some readers said they would pay $.15 or $.50 per issue. Others said they would pay between $1 and $20 per subscription.

Additional Information

• Most of the respondents (62 percent) share their copy with others; 22 percent do not.
• The respondents came from different districts in Florida. Those noted are DeLand, Leesburg, Melbourne, Miami, Orlando, Sarasota, St. Petersburg and West Palm Beach.

Since the majority of the readers are over 66 years old and have been members of the church for more than 11 years, the information discovered in this survey is the opinion of mature, loyal members. The respondents represent a wide variety of leadership positions, and most individuals have held more than one. The varying comments also prove that the readers want to get different messages from the “Review,” and that stories will be meaningful to some individuals and worthless to others. The consensus of the readers points toward satisfaction with the “Review,” however, general comments may indicate a desire to see minor changes in varying areas.

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