Back to the Basics - Conducting a Successful Readership Survey, by Lewis Copulsky, Lewis&Clark
A version of this article appeared in Signature magazine, March 2010

5. Benchmark. A reader survey should not be a one-time event. Some publications conduct a reader survey once a year; at an absolute minimum, plan to conduct one every five years. A significant revamp of your publication or changes in your industry that affect the information needs of readers are also times when a reader survey can be especially useful.

Incorporate a core set of questions that are repeated from one survey to the next. Often, a publisher will look at the results of a finished survey and wonder how they compare with other publications. Every publication and every readership is different, though, and the most valuable comparison is with yourself. By benchmarking important measures of reader involvement and satisfaction, you'll be able to track your publication over time and detect trends early on.

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