D  e  s  e  r  t     E  x  p  o  s  u  r  e  July 2005

The Numbers Game

The best two hours you'll spend this month. . . and other results from our annual reader survey.

 

In the immortal Oscar-acceptance words of Sally Field (more or less), "You like us. You really, really like us." That sums up the results of Desert Exposure's third annual reader survey in a nutshell.

Not that this represents much of a change from previous years, even though the 2005 survey brought the largest reader response to date: Desert Exposure readers are nothing if not consistent. But we like to think the fact that even more of you took the time to fill out our survey, in print or online, means that you collectively like us just a bit better this year than ever before, too. (Hey, humor us a little, OK?)

As in the past, more than 80 percent of you make it a point to seek out and read Desert Exposure every single month. And although you're devoted to reading Desert Exposure, you're also willing to share your copy: Each copy of Desert Exposure gets read by almost two and a half people—a figure that's been pretty consistent, though the exact number has ticked up a tad each year.

Also consistently increasing is the amount of time our readers spend with each issue, which has grown from an hour and 45 minutes two years ago to an average of two hours in the 2005 survey. (Since our issues keep getting fatter and serving up more to read, it's good that your interest is keeping up with us!) That's an astonishing figure in this era of bite-sized news, infonuggets and Web surfing. Think how long it takes you to read the morning paper over breakfast, for instance. If you tried to stretch breakfast over a two-hour reading of Desert Exposure, your cereal would be very soggy indeed by the time you flipped to our last page.

Two-thirds of you save your copies of Desert Exposure at least all month, if not longer. That proportion has jumped from just half in the 2003 survey; it's nice to know that more of you are finding each issue worth keeping around.

While we continue to enjoy strong readership in the Silver City area, the 2005 survey also reflects our increasing popularity (and improved distribution) in Las Cruces. The proportion of readers who pick up their copies in Las Cruces or Mesilla grew by more than 40 percent compared to 2004's survey. Adding together those who live there and those who regularly travel to shop or find fun there, the percentage of our readers who patronize merchants, restaurants and entertainment venues in Silver City and Las Cruces/Mesilla is almost exactly the same. Significant numbers also find themselves in Deming, Tucson and Albuquerque on a regular basis, though Tucson's share of our shoppers dropped from last year. (Wonder if Trader Joe's has noticed?)

Desert Exposure readers remain difficult to reach via any other publication. (We like to think of you as "choosy.") Among daily papers, only 39 percent of you regularly read the Silver City Daily Press, 27 percent the Las Cruces Sun-News, 21 percent the Silver City Sun-News and 8 percent the Deming Headlight. The biggest change in this part of the 2005 survey is the continuing decline in our overlap with The Ink: In our first survey, 46 percent of Desert Exposure readers also regularly read The Ink; that percentage dropped in 2004 and declined again this year, to just 33 percent. (May we selfishly point out that advertisers only in The Ink are missing nearly 17,000 of the readers of Desert Exposure?) Our overlap with The Bulletin, which last year we thought might just be a statistical fluke, remains low—just 25 percent. Even smaller numbers of Desert Exposure readers regularly pick up the Glenwood Gazette—20 percent
—or the Sabroso dining guide (just 13 percent—perhaps because Desert Exposure readers are getting our own quarterly Red or Green? restaurant section).

The most popular section of our survey every year, of course, is the part where you get to rate how often you read our columnists and other regular departments. This annual "horse race," however, has shown remarkably few changes from year to year, except where we've introduced new columnists or departments. Desert Exposure readers know what they like, apparently, and stick to it. Once again this year (ahem) this humble Editor's Note is the most-read column, followed closely by Continental Divide (also, ahem, by yours truly), which moved up a spot and overtook Letters. Desert Diary remained fourth, followed by our 40 Days and 40 Nights events calendar and Arts Exposure section. No doubt much to his chagrin, Ramblin' Outdoors columnist Larry Lightner—who loves to be controversial—stayed popular, in seventh place, followed by Tumbleweeds and Henry Lightcap's Journal. New columnist Marjorie Lilly made a strong debut with her Borderlines column, narrowly edging ahead of long-time favorite The People's Law.

We also asked readers to single out one favorite among all our columnists and standing features, and here you spoke loud and clear: Desert Diary and Continental Divide were far and away your top choices—although they in turn tied, splitting between them almost half of all the "favorite" responses. Sorry, Larry, but despite (or maybe because of) your efforts at stirring up controversy, Ramblin' Outdoors finished an impressive third in the "favorite" balloting, at 11 percent. Editor's Note and Henry Lightcap's Journal followed among favorites. Our other new column, Bert Stevens' The Starry Dome, also picked up some "favorite" votes; as you might expect for a more special-interest column, The Starry Dome attracts a narrow but devoted readership, with 23 percent of respondents "always" seeing what's up with the month's astronomy highlights.

Thanks to everyone who responded, but a special, tangible thank you—in the form of Desert Exposure gear—will go out to 10 respondents we picked at random. (This year we numbered all the responses and matched with random numbers generated by the computer—much more scientific than throwing all the surveys down the hall and picking the 10 that flew the farthest.) The lucky winners are: Dallas Rychener, Mary Sias, Jim Fritz and Eugene Lewis of Silver City; David Porter of Glenwood; Joan Dodson and Micheline Lafortune of Las Cruces; Kathy Cooke of East Greenbush, NY (and Las Cruces in the winter); Kara Naber of Columbus; and Tom Myers of Hillsboro.

Next month, we'll share some of the many interesting comments readers wrote in along with the survey.

David A. Fryxell is editor of Desert Exposure.

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