Ready for round two? Thanks for joining me again as we continue our deep dive into the results of the Quill’s recent reader survey. Last week, we looked at who is reading the Quill. This week, we’re exploring the “what” — the pages you love, the ones you skip and the comments that gave us plenty to think about.
While nearly everyone is enthusiastic about the front page, once readers get inside the pages, they don’t all agree on where the best conversations are to be had. This is to be expected, but even so, there were some big surprises to us.
For example, I know I’m not alone in seeing our community as faith-forward and faith-focused. The comments left in the survey indicated readers think so, too. And yet, I was shocked to see the Religion page is our most skipped section. A full half of you said its content is irrelevant to your interest, and many more were on the fence. More than a quarter specifically said they wanted to see less of it in the Quill. One respondent summed it up well, saying that while they know faith has “a broad appeal,” they aren’t personally interested in what local religions are doing outside of community events.
I wonder why this is? Is it because faith is so personal and private? Is it the columns in particular? One reader said they would rather not see so many similar religious viewpoints, so then I wonder, is it too focused on Christianity? The experience of faith is diverse, as is our community, increasingly so. The biggest question I’m asking myself is whether this means we need to swap out the furniture altogether and update the content to reflect more diversity, or do we need to take a more minimalistic approach and apply some Marie Kondo principles. If it’s not bringing you joy, do we toss it out?
On the other hand, you weren’t shy about telling us what you love. Unsurprisingly, the front page remains a must-read for nearly everyone. But it was affirming to see how much you enjoy our special sections — things like the annual Progress stories or Deer Shots contest. You also showed loyal readership for pages like Food & Dining, Obituaries and, of course, Opinions — otherwise you wouldn’t be reading this right now! As one reader put it, “Those pages tell me the most about our town.”
There were quite a few interesting comments regarding specific columns or pages, and respondents were at times quite passionate in making them. The results are available online at westplainsdailyquill.net/results. Go ahead and see for yourself!
One comment I think is too important not to mention expressed concern over a reliance on artificial intelligence. It’s a fair question in this day and age, and it tells me we need to be clear about our policy.
I want to state, for the record, that while we do make use of modern tools such as AI for the purposes of formatting and proofreading, sports statistics, organization and scheduling, every word printed in our articles is written by a human. Goodness knows, as eagle-eyed as I am as an editor, I still miss mistakes in almost every paper. Technology has helped reduce that, but the reality is, I’m still human — and when you see those errors, I hope you’ll remember that it’s a surefire sign that a human being was here, typos and all.
The big takeaway for me is that, while we’re on the right track, there’s always room to grow. Most of you have a favorable impression of the Quill and would recommend it to a friend. For that, we’re grateful.
We’re taking your feedback to heart. We’re reevaluating the Religion page, we’re brainstorming more of that special content you love, and we promise to keep bringing you human-powered community journalism. But this conversation isn’t over. We want to keep hearing from you. What do you think we should do with the Religion page? What special sections would you like to see? Don’t be shy, this is your newspaper, after all. It’s a conversation in itself, and I’m just so glad to share it with you.
