The Santa Rosa Press Democrat will be making changes to its daily comics page.
Dear Readers –
The Press Democrat is making some slight design improvements throughout our print edition, starting in April. One area we’re reviewing relates to our comics section that publishes Monday-Saturday.
The paper asks readers to mark their favorite comics.
Comic Panels:
Family Circus; Bizarro; Bliss; The Argyle Sweater
Comic Strips:
Peanuts; Zits; Non Sequitur; Pearls Before Swine; Doonesbury;
Baby Blues; For Better or For Worse; Tundra; Garfield; Sally Forth;
Luann; Dilbert; Hagar the Horrible; Blondie; Mutts; Candorville; Pickles
We’ve run out of Press Democrat free views
but you may be able to check out the survey page.
The Press Democrat comics page from 25 years ago:
(Peanuts and Sylvia ran on a separate page.)
I used to try to explain that these unscientific comic “surveys” are just a way to find out what your existing subscribers who have retired want to see. Rather than attract new readers, the goal is apparently to placate those you already have but who won’t be around in another decade or so.
It ought to make readers question the editing of any story that has to do with polls or statistics, since it’s such a blatant giveaway that the editors understand neither.
“It ought to make readers question the editing of any story that has to do with polls or statistics”
Shouldn’t that already be everybody’s Bayesian prior?
Are there new or potential readers of newspapers? I think that ship has sailed. This is more likely a way to cut comics at the bottom of the polls to save money. Then when they get complaints about the “cut” comics they can turn it back on the readers and their votes.
PJ, I’m not speculating about this. I spent about 35 years working in newspapers, including redesigning one paper’s entire comics section (Sundays included).
Here’s how we did it, and why I wish innumerate editors would stop doing “comic surveys.”
https://www.weeklystorybook.com/comic_strip_of_the_daycom/2016/03/how-to-conduct-a-comics-survey.html
Thanks, Mike, that’s a great piece. I totally defer to your experience, but my cynicism feeds the “They don’t care about the results. They just want to make changes and blame the readers” position. What’s the point of a survey unless they’re adding new comics, right?
COMICS WE LIKE:
FAMILY CIRCUS, PEANUTS, FOR BETTER OR WORSE
GARFIELD, LUANN, HAGAR THE HORRIBLE, MUTTS
PICKLES, ZITS, BABY BLUES, TUNDRA, BLONDIE
ARGYLE SWEATE, NON SEQUITAR IS SOMETIME GOOD
COMICS WE DISLIKE:
BIZARRO, BLISS, DOONESBURY, CANDORVILLE, DILBERT,
SALLY FORTH WAS GOOD NOW POOR,
REX MORGAN WAS GOOD NOW STUPID, PEARLS BEFORE SWINE SOMETIMES GOOD
LIKE TO SEE ADDED:
B.C.
FAR SIDE
MOTHER GOOSE