On November 17, Berkeleyside launched a Readership Survey. We put it up on the site, naturally, and sent it to our wonderful email subscribers. We didn’t know what to expect in terms of a response, so we were thrilled when near-on 900 of you took the time to tell us a little bit about yourselves and share your views of Berkeleyside.
We feel obliged to report, immodestly, that the vast majority of you love Berkeleyside. The plaudits were numerous, vocal and very encouraging.
But enough about us. What about you? When the survey went up, Berkeleyside reader Mike Farrell posted a comment asking that we “Please post the survey results”. Farrell said he was particularly interested in how wide a readership we have in Berkeley.
Well, on that score the results are conclusive: a whopping 84% of respondents live in Berkeley while just over half (53%) work in the city too. We do have the odd far-flung reader too, however. One in Jerusalem for example, another in Omaha NE, and quite a smattering in Nashville TN for some reason.
Other nuggets of information which we gleaned: there’s a fairly balanced male-female ratio with slightly more of the latter, you are aged anywhere between 10 and 110 with the majority of you in the middle, and you enjoy reading about breaking news, crime, the arts and food. You’d like to see even more neighborhood and local business stories but overall think we have got the mix pretty much right.
We are going to spend time reading each and every one of the hundreds of additional comments readers left for us within the survey — and we’ll endeavor to take on board as many of your suggestions as possible.
The survey included a draw for a $100 certificate to hot new Berkeley restaurant Zut! on Fourth Street. The winner drawn at random was Berkeleyan Elisabeth Ross. Congratulations and a certificate are winging their way to her.
Many thanks to all 868 of you who participated, and for reading Berkeleyside.
