How many students read the school newspaper?

Purpose

As editors of our high school Cranbrook Kingswood's newspaper the Crane-Clarion, my friend and I wanted feedback from the school about their newspaper. They wanted to see how many students read the newspaper, what they read in it, and why students don’t read it.

Features

Timeline of Project

Create Sample Population

Design and Send Survey

Compile and Analyze Data

Make Recommendations

Sampling the Population

Step 1: Using the class roster, we assigned numbers to all students

Results

Respondents were asked whether they read the school newspaper or not. Skimming the newspaper counts as "reading the school newspaper." 2/3 of respondents read the newspapers and 1/3 do not.

Of those who said "yes" to reading the newspaper, we asked what part of the newspaper do they read. 70% read the newspaper for select articles and friend features, 26.7% glanced at pictures and/or headlines, and 3.3% read each article thoroughly.

Students read the student feature section (25), school event section (23), sports section (17), school plays/concerts (13), opinion pieces (11), politics (9), and movie/book reviews (4). The Student Feature section is the most popular while the movie/book reviews are the least popular. Respondents were allowed to choose multiple sections hence the total number is beyond the number of respondents.

Students who didn't read the newspaper said it didn't fit their interests (7), they didn't know where to find the newspaper/didn't know it existed (6), don't care about the newspaper (2), and/or didn't have time (1). Students mainly did not read the newspaper because it didn't fit their interests. Political preferences are not a reason why students don't read the newspaper. Respondents were allowed to choose multiple selections hence the total number is beyond the number of respondents.

Further Analysis

Conclusions

2/3 of students read the Crane Clarion
Most students who read the Crane Clarion read for student features and school events articles
1/3 of students do not read the Crane Clarion
Students mainly were not interested or did not know where to find the Crane Clarion

From this report, we discovered that making sure the newspapers are distributed in "common areas" is essential. Respondents indicated that was one of the main reasons for not reading the newspaper.

While we can't emphasize certain sections of the newspaper over others, it is good to keep in mind that students enjoy the student features and school events articles.

Forum

Have you tried surveying your readers? Feel free to add your experience and tips in the forum!

Forum