By Gretchen Keiser

In May a random sample of 2,000 people who subscribe to The Georgia Bulletin received a survey trying to determine what readers like and don't like about the paper, why they read it, and who the readers are.

What did readers say? The following article outlines the major questions and what the readers answered.

Asked how many of the last four issues of the newspaper they had read, a sizable majority, over 64 percent, had red all four issues and another 13 percent had read three of the last four issues. Five percent said they had not read the paper at all.

Asked how long they spend reading each issue of the Catholic newspaper, over 42 percent spend between 20 and 40 minutes reading the paper each week. Another 10 percent spend between 40 and 60 minutes reading it.

Readers like to share the newspaper with non-subscribers. Asked if they typically give an article from The Georgia Bulletin or the whole issue to someone outside their household, over 19 percent of the readers said yes.

Readers were also asked how often they discussed material they read in The Georgia Bulletin with other people and the findings showed that a sizable majority do find articles in the paper worthy of discussion.

Over 44 percent said they sometimes discussed the material, another 14 percent said they often discuss the material, and another seven percent said they discuss it "quite often."

A total of 65.5 percent, therefore, said they discussed material in the paper sometimes, often or quite often.

The surveyor commented that he found these statistics "rather high," although they jibed with the figure of 19 percent of readers who said they give the issue or an article from the issue to someone outside their home. "If the material is interesting, it will be shared," the surveyor said. "In the case of The Georgia Bulletin, it is shared through physical passage of the newspaper and orally through discussion."

Major Reasons For Reading Paper

Asked for the "major" reasons for reading the Catholic newspaper, the top response given was for "news of the archdiocese." Second was to be "informed about the Catholic Church," third was for "news of changes in the Church" and fourth was for "news of the clergy and Religious." Fifth was to receive parish news. People were free to choose as many answers as applied. The top three choices were picked by a majority of readers, from 55 percent who look for new or changes in the Church, to 64 percent who want to be informed about the Church, to 75 percent, the number who look for archdiocesan news.

Parish news is the desire of a third of the readers, the 33 percent who made that selection, and approximately a quarter of the readers look for the editorials, and a quarter look for the paper to be a source of inspiration.

The surveyor noted that the paper "provides information to its audience that is unobtainable from other sources including the secular press." He also noted that the paper may be "the sole source" for the information desired by readers, since other Church sources may be too busy with other tasks to accomplish the spread of archdiocesan news and information that The Georgia Bulletin does.

Sources of Guidance

Not only do readers look for specific information and news from The Georgia Bulletin, the paper is one of their primary sources of guidance "when troubled about what to believe as a Catholic."

Given a selection of nine sources of guidance, and encouraged to check as many sources as would apply, readers said their first resource when troubled was prayer, the source noted by over 60 percent of readers. The second was "your parish priest," a choice of 47 percent of the readers. Third was Catholic friends, a source of help for 46 percent of readers. Fourth was The Georgia Bulletin, which was used for guidance by 28 percent of readers.

The surveyor, who has done studies for four other Catholic newspapers in the Northeast and along the East Coast near Washington, D.C., found that the Southern readers of The Georgia Bulletin rely much more heavily on Catholic friends for help than do Catholics surveyed in other regions.

And despite being in the Bible Belt, readers of The Georgia Bulletin were no more likely, by percentage, to use the Bible as a source of guidance than were Catholics in the North and Mid-Atlantic states.

Twenty-six percent of Georgia Bulletin readers said they sought out guidance in the Bible, compared with 27 percent to 24 percent of readers from northern Catholic newspapers.

"A minor, and continuing, surprise for this researcher in the studies is the low score and low rank for the Bible as a source of guidance for readers of Catholic papers," the surveyor reported.

The newspaper is kept in the home by most readers from five to seven days, and the surveyor pointed out that this factor should be considered alongside the knowledge that some readers search for guidance about Church and moral matters in The Georgia Bulletin. It is a source that remains in the home for a length of time.

Reader Profile

Who are The Georgia Bulletin readers? A number of questions attempted to draw forth details that would show something about the family life, the spiritual life, the work and home life of readers, so content of the newspaper can respond more specifically to peoples' lives.

A first question explored the activities, both spiritual and social, of readers. The response shows a high level of activity, some of it higher than those of other Catholic newspapers surveyed.

Again, readers could choose as many answers as applied, and nearly 95 percent said they had prayed privately in the 30 days prior to the survey, nearly 94 percent had been to Mass in the same time period, and over 91 percent had donated money to their parish that month.

Nearly 43 percent had volunteered services to their parish that month, over 35 percent had read the Bible (an interesting contrast with the figure of 26 percent of people using the Bible for guidance when troubled) and 21 percent had attended a parish meeting. Nineteen percent took part in a social action project that month, 12 percent a prayer meeting, 9 percent a spiritual conference and 7 percent parish renewal.

The surveyor noted that readers of The Georgia Bulletin have high activity levels, which is consistent with his findings in other Catholic newspaper surveys. However, Georgia Bulletin readers have higher percentage of people donating money to their parishes and volunteering services to their parish.

A significant finding in the surveys is the low percentage of people who have received the sacrament of Confession in the month prior to the survey. The Georgia Bulletin survey showed that approximately 45 percent of the readers had been at Mass more than four times in the month, another 32 percent had been at Mass four times that month, and another 8 percent had been at Mass three times. Approximately four percent of readers had not been at Mass at all that month.

Mission and Impact

A majority of readers, nearly 70 percent, said they were neutral on the statement that The Georgia Bulletin encouraged them to be more active in their parish and a similar figure, 68 percent, said they were neutral on the statement that the newspaper encourages them to give more to their parish. Fourteen percent said yes to the first statement and 10 percent said yes to the second statement.

A major effort of The Georgia Bulletin has been to respond to the high number of people moving into the archdiocese from other parts of the country, and help them familiarize themselves with and become part of the archdiocese.

That effort is perceived as successful by readers. A majority, 54 percent of readers, said they agree that The Georgia Bulletin assists newcomers to integrate into the community. Nine percent disagreed.

Another major concern of the newspaper is to help readers grow in and understand the Catholic faith.

A majority of readers agreed that the paper does help in this task. Over 50 percent said they agree that the paper helps them understand their faith. Twelve percent disagreed.

This number intrigues the surveyor, who pointed out that over 50 percent of the readers say the newspaper helps them understand their faith, but in answer to an earlier question, only about 28 percent read the newspaper for that reason.

Asked whether they read other Catholic newspapers and magazines that The Georgia Bulletin, over 50 percent said they did so either seldom or very seldom. Twenty-two percent of readers did read other Catholic material frequently or very frequently.

Asked whether The Georgia Bulletin "adequately reports on my parish community" over 44 percent agreed or strongly agreed. Approximately 29 percent were neutral and 27 percent disagreed.

The readers of the newspaper were asked directly to assess whether they would miss the paper "very much if I did not receive it." Two-thirds of the readers, 66 percent, agreed or agreed strongly with that statement. Sixteen percent disagreed with the statement.

Readers were also asked to what extent they agreed with the statement that "most Catholics of the archdiocese would benefit from subscribing to The Georgia Bulletin." More than two-thirds of the readers, or 68 percent, agreed or agreed strongly with that statement. Seven percent disagreed with the statement.

Most Read Sections

Readers were also asked to specify which sections of the paper they read, and which they did not read as frequently. Given 13 specific choices, from archdiocesan news, to parish news, to world and national news, and so forth, readers could specify as many as were appropriate.

The top two categories were the section called Around the Archdiocese and local parish news. Over 80 percent of readers said they read those sections often or sometimes.

World and national news, editorials, letters to the editor, movie and TV reviews, columnists and the Faith Alive! section were read often or sometimes by a majority of the readers, from 69 percent for world and national news, to 66 percent for editorials, 64 percent for letters, 55 percent for reviews, 64 percent of columnists and 54 percent for Faith Alive!

Only three percent of readers read the news printed in Spanish often or sometimes. Georgia Graphics was read by 49 percent of readers, the Week in Review by 52 percent and monthly book reviews by 38 percent.

Demographic Profile

Readers were asked how long they've lived in the archdiocese of Atlanta and the answers ranged from less than one year to 78 years.

The most common response was five years, the surveyor said, but the average of all responses was 16.7 years, a higher figure than expected in this region where everyone talks about being a transplant.

The number of people living in families receiving The Georgia Bulletin and responding to the survey ranged from one to nine. The most common response was two, but the average of all was 2.9 people. Twenty percent of the people surveyed had four people in their household and 10 percent had five people. The household size is probably smaller than the actual family size since older children may have moved out or be away at school.

The average age in the household of people who answered the survey was 36 years, with the most frequent response being in the age range between 40 and 49 years old.

Household members in the families responding to the survey have diversified work. Forty percent are employed full-time, 14 percent are employed part-time, 14 percent are students, 20 percent are retired, two percent are looking for work and nine percent are at home and are not looking for work outside the home.

Asked the employment status of the "head of the household" 49 percent said professional or managerial, 22 percent said retired, 11 percent said white-collar employee, eight percent said self-employed, four percent said blue-collar employees and two percent were unemployed.

The educational level of the head of household showed that 36 percent were college graduates, an additional 24 percent had some college and another 22 percent held graduate degrees. Eleven percent are high school graduates, two percent attended some high school, but did not graduate, and 1.9 percent attended elementary school only.

Over 88 percent own their own homes.

Income levels for the households who responded varied from less than $15,000 a year to over $120,000, the highest category provided on the survey form.

The highest percentage of people fell into the category of between $30,000 and $44,999 in annual income, with a nearly equal percentage of people making between $45,000 and $59,999. The average income based on the range of answers is $52,500.

The research was done by an independent researcher who has conducted surveys for Catholic newspapers in Baltimore, Rochester, NY, Wilmington, DE, and Providence, RI.