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Show Herald Readership Survey Finished Weekly newspaper Study Sponsored by USPA Gives Interesting Data A weekly newspaper readership study based on the Springville Herald has just been completed by the Department Depart-ment b Marketing, School of Commerce of the Brigham Young University, under sponsorship of the Utah State Press Association. The Springville Herald was selected as the only weekly newspaper fn Utah county with membership in Audit Bureau of Circulation. A summary of the information gained through the survey sur-vey has been printed in a 28 page booklet and these are to be distributed throughout the United States. The Weekly Research Bureau has purchased 1500, which will be sent to all member papers of the Weekly Research Bureau, an organization to study weekly newspapers of the United States. A total of 300 booklets are going to the National Editorial Association Newspaper Advertising Service, while a large number will be distributed to principal advertising agencies throughout the country. All papers in the State of Utah, as well as all advertising advertis-ing agencies in this state and major businesses which do newspaper advertising in the state, will receive a copy. The booklet will also be distributed to all local advertisers. In order to give Herald readers who were interviewed, I as' well as all other subscribers, an explanation of the purpose pur-pose of the survey and the results, the following information on this and following pages is being published. As the survey began, names for interviewers were obtained ob-tained by selecting every fifth card from the subscription files of the Herald. The name and address was typed on a card and the name numbered in consecutive order by those who were to make the survey. More than 200 names were used as the basis of the sample, as the paper had more than 1000 subscribers. When the list was completed, every even number on the list was designed as "Mrs." , while the odd numbers were designated as "Mr." This was done in order to assure an adequate number of both men and women. The full name and address with the designation of Mr. or Mrs. was then typed on a questionnaire containing questions pertinent pertin-ent to the survey and attached to a copy of the paper. The interviewer was then instructed to contact the exact person named and was allowed no leeway in making selections other than the person named on the questionnaire. In order to assure an adequate sample, two hundred papers were assigned with instructions being given interviewers to take special pains to obtain. a high percentage of men, since contacts con-tacts with men would be mos t difficult to make. This procedure pro-cedure resulted in interviews with' 157 persons, 92 being women and 65 men. The entire task of interviewing was performed by the class of Advertising and Journalism of the Brigham Young University. No advance information was given as to what issue of the paper would be selected on which to make the survey. The head of the Marketing Department selected the issue of November 13, 1947. Each student was given a paper which had been previously pre-viously marked showing which articles and which departments depart-ments were to be considered in the survey. The student then, after finding the person whose name he had been assigned, proceeded to ask if they had read the articles in question, after explaining that they should answer in the affirmative only if they had read some part of the article in addition to the headline. The student would then mark Y" with his crayon if the person answered in the affirmative, and a "N" if he answered in the negative. This same procedure was followed in the case of advertisements, except the person was asked to report in the affirmative if they remembered reading read-ing any part of the advertisement. The papers with each article and advertisement thus marked with "Y" and "N" were tabulated to a master copy with the "Y's" and "N's" included in order to guarantee an accurate tabulation. Each article in the paper surveyed, which was read at all, was marked with the percentage of both men and women" who read the specific article in question. Several advertisements advertise-ments were chosen on which questions were asked as to whether headline, picture, copy or signature were read. Such results are shown on the face of the advertisement so chosen and included in this study. The 28 page booklet with all information on the survey sets forth the summary of the findings. It includes a description descrip-tion of the Springville Herald and of the city of Springville. There is also considerable space given to Editorial Content, which shows the best read stories in the paper with the percent per-cent which read them; the observation of pictures in the paper; a table sh owing the most-Iooked-at pictures. In the section devoted to Advertising Content, information informa-tion is given on national advertising with a table showing the best read national ads. Local advertising is listed in the booklet, showing the percent of readership for each advertisement, adver-tisement, both by men and women interviewed. Classified advertising is also given space to show what percent of men and women read the classifieds. In the last 12 pages of the booklet appears a reproduction reproduc-tion of the November 13, 1947, issue of the Springville Herald Her-ald which was surveyed, with stickers on each story and advertisement showing the percent of men and women who read the ad or item. The booklet also contains charts and graphs, showing the reading of the Herald by pages; editorial departments and advertising. Among interesting comments made in the booklet under the caption, "Summary of Findings," are that both the editorial edi-torial and advertising material were well read in the Springville Spring-ville Herald survey issue. All of both the men and the women who read the paper, read some of the local news and also some of the advertising. On the whole the women read a greater percent of both the editorial matter and the advertising adver-tising than the men. The 12 pages of the Springville Herald as they were reproduced for the 14-page booklet, are printed in the Herald Her-ald today and a study of each advertisement and news article arti-cle to determine the percent of men and women who read it, we believed would be of sufficient interest to readers to reproduce re-produce each page in the papr today. 1 |