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The holyday offerings seem to be higher this year than last, and are
coming in steadily from all church areas.
This should keep us busy
with processing for awhile.
--Richard Rice, Mail Porcessing Center
0
EDITORIAL SERVICES REPORT
The last three covers of the PT all seem
to be winners--they are really snapping them up on the newsstands,
I'm told.
We have been trying to give the PT more contemporary
design value in order to appeal to a younger audience.
It seems to
be working!
Thought you might be interested in some of the findings from a recent
telephone readership survey conducted by Larry Nelson.
We found, for
example, that the average age of our present PT readership in the
U.S. is 52.
� �-
When asked if they would like more or less Bible content in the
magazine we learned the following; 67 percent of the members on the
list wanted more, 52 percent of the co-workers wanted more, 44 per
cent of the donors did, and only 35 percent of the regulars wanted
more biblical content.
Sixty percent of the regulars thought the PT was "okay as it is" in
terms of biblical content, while only 33 percent of the members
surveyed were content with the existing amount of biblical material.
None of the members on the list wanted less biblical content but 9
percent of the donors said they'd like to see less.
Regulars on the list comprise the largest group of readers, of
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course.
Members the smallest.
Yet it is the members who support
the Work financially more than any other group.
Co-workers are
second.
When asked which activities they did most, our PT readers listed them
in order: 1) reading, 2) television, 3) radio.
Obviously, our own members and co-workers would like to see more
biblical content in the PT.
They are the ones most involved---ril"the
Work both financially and philosophically.
And, as "older" people,
they are less interested in the lifestyle, tastes, concerns and
interests of the young.
Yet, as I mentioned
.
in
...
the last PR, 50
percent of the people in the United States are under age 30!
So,
our PT readership is certainly not typical of the nation as a whole.
The philosophical problem in putting the PT together in this country
is:
are we going to concentrate on "feeding" and maintaining our
existing list, or are we going to seek to appeal to a broader,
younger, more typical cross section of the American public?
It
seems obvious that we should seek to reach a broader audience with
the PT than we are doing at present.
If we were to appeal to a younger audience we would have to stress
O
shorter, more "personal" articles, written in a somewhat glib, quick
style.
We would have to·focus attention on the issues that concern
the "post war baby boom" generation more.