Good morning readers — we hope you’re having a great weekend.
If I told you, “The Tribune would be nothing without our readers”, you’d probably wince. It sounds a lot like a cliche, doesn’t it? However, like some cliches, it’s based on truth. If none of you liked our stories and paid to receive more of them, Victoria and I would be out of our jobs pretty sharpish.
It’s because we value our readers so much that a few weeks ago we sent out a survey, something we will be doing annually from now on. The survey asked people for some information about themselves and for people to tell what they liked (or didn’t like) about The Tribune. It’s always daunting when you send one of these out. We weren’t paying people to fill it in or offering prizes. Would anyone respond? The fact that an amazing 385 of you responded put paid to that notion. A huge thanks to everyone who did so.
As the responses piled up I couldn’t resist a sneaky peek at them. At this stage I can’t give away too many details about what you told us, but the results certainly made for interesting reading. In terms of age, the average Tribune reader is north of 50 years old, and they tend to live in what you might call the leafier parts of the city. That's probably not very surprising. But one finding which did catch my eye was how educated our readers are. It turns out almost 50% of them either have a master’s degree or PhD (one wonders if it’s easy to identify Tribune readers — people of more mature years walking round places like Nether Edge and Broomhill laden down with books).
As well as the factual stuff, we asked people to describe The Tribune, and your answers here were so pleasing. “Good journalism, interesting topics, good writing,” read one, which is exactly what I wanted The Tribune to be when I set it up three years ago. “Interesting, researched, focused, thoughtful,” read another, while “local, in depth, informative,” read a third. But these responses were just the tip of the iceberg. The lovely comments just went on and on.
We also asked which stories were people’s favourites. Here, there was a huge range, but a few came up again and again. Unsurprisingly, Victoria’s twin investigations into The Leadmill and Kommune were particularly popular. My recent trouble at the Politics in Pubs meeting was fondly remembered (if not by me), and people liked many of the stories written by our freelancers, especially David Bocking, whose piece on his experience of being a foster parent struck a chord with many of you.
But of all the questions we asked, perhaps the most important was how likely people were to recommend The Tribune to friends. Here, an astonishing 95% of those who responded gave us a score of 7 out of 10 or above, including almost 50% giving us the full 10. It’s an amazing result which proves that people really value what we do and are keen for others to join in too.
The survey went out to all our subscribers, paid and unpaid. Of those who responded, around a third weren’t yet full members. As well as receiving all our journalism (four newsletters a week), members are able to comment on all our stories (and usually do — the comments section on many pieces is as long, detailed and thoughtful as a lot of the stories). And they also get invited to our regular members’ events with another two being planned for this summer.
But other than emails, comments and events, what else might persuade you become a paid subscriber? Obviously, I can give you my reasons — but since my wages literally come out of paying subscriptions, you might not have much reason to believe me. Let me give you some reasons from people a step removed from the paper (or at the least, not employees) — that our readers have given me, in our survey. Maybe you’d like to feel closer to the place you live in. One comment that I found very moving to read came from a parent, who told me “You are the main way I feel connected to Sheffield as a city” (childcare limits how they interact with the city) and that “you are basically an information/community lifeline (in some ways).” I’ll take it!
Another reader said “I think your existence is important beyond what you tell me. Your persistence to get to the answers is very healthy for Sheffield.” Besides being a very kind comment, I think this is a great argument not just for what we do at the Tribune specifically, but for paying for high-quality local journalism (whether here or in any other city). Cities feel much “healthier” (less corrupt, more responsive to their electorate) when they’re being placed under scrutiny. I hope we’ve gone some way to holding bodies of power in Sheffield to account and making the labyrinthine workings of local democracy and urban development more transparent.
Reading the survey makes you realise there are hundreds of reasons people subscribe to The Tribune. One person suggested they enjoyed the variety our paper offers: "The Leadmill dispute was an interesting new take on a subject, but also small tongue in cheek article like reviews of the best Sheffield mulled wine". Other responses seemed to suggest that our comment section is another point of appeal alongside the articles themselves: “Loved the story on the Crimean monument and the discussion it prompted. I always enjoy the comments.” Others seemed drawn to the paper for Daniel Timms’ data-led reporting. “I like anything by your data expert, he's refreshingly informative and concise!”
Taken as a whole, the survey suggests that what we’ve created at The Tribune in the last three years isn’t just a newspaper — it’s a community that people value being part of and want to see continue. If you’ve ever found something in The Tribune useful or educational or entertaining, please consider becoming a key part of that community by subscribing using the button below. It costs just £8.95 a month or £89 if you pay for a year up front (the equivalent of just £1.71 a week — less than a bottle of Henderson’s Relish). You’ll get two extra articles a week, as well as access to our events and comment section. None of this would be possible without our paying subscribers — please help secure the future of thoughtful, independent journalism in Sheffield by hitting the button below.
Many thanks for all your support.
Dan Hayes
The Tribune