Sun reaches out to its readers, advertisers

Your opinion counts.

That is why the Bermuda Sun is conducting two Readership Surveys — one for those who read us in print, and one for those who mainly use the Sun online. 

Those who complete the surveys have a chance to win a Bermuda Gas barbecue in a prize draw.

Glenn Jones, acting general manager of MediaHouse — the parent company of the Bermuda Sun, said: “Like any responsible news organization we want to give our readers the perfect balance of what they need to know and what they want to know. Our experienced editorial team is expert at the first part, what we’re trying to do now is make sure we are hitting the mark on the second part.  We figure the best way to find out what readers want is to ask them and once we have that information we plan to act on it.”

The Bermuda Sun last conducted a Readership Survey in 2008. 

Mr Jones said: “So much has changed about our country since then — economically, politically, culturally.  We believe any business that wants to be successful should ask the people it serves for feedback. That’s exactly what we’re doing.   In fact, you might argue that we’re overdue for something like this.”

The Bermuda Sun is conducting surveys with advertisers and would-be advertisers as well. Mr Jones is looking forward to that feedback, too.

“Where there are clear trends in the responses, we plan to take immediate action. The same team that put this survey in the field is going to sit down, analyze the data and methodically look for actionable items. 

“We also understand that if readers are getting the content they say they want, advertisers will see us as a very attractive advertising option.”

Mr Jones said people are welcome to do both the online and print surveys as they are two different products. There are barbecues to be won, one for the print survey, the other online.

“We believe it’s likely that people who consume news online want different things from people who consume news in hardcopy,” Mr Jones said. “ That’s why we made a decision to offer separate surveys with distinctly different questions. Plus, having a specific online survey allows us to dig deeper on issues like social media, online classifieds and user submitted comments.”

The survey is on page 12 of today’s Sun and includes 16 questions. Once you fill it out you can submit it at any one of these 21 locations: Bermuda Gas Showroom, Phoenix Centre, Clarendon Pharmacy, Collectors Hill Apothecary, Paget Pharmacy, Esso City Mart, Esso Collectors Hill, Esso Crawl Hill, ESSO BIU, Esso Terceira’s (Port Royal), Esso Sandy’s, Esso St George’s, Esso Warwick, Lindo’s Devonshire and Warwick, Supermart Front Street and St George’s, Garden Market, Howard’s Mini Mart, Robertson’s Drug Store and the Bermuda Sun. 

The online Readership Survey may be found under the Interact button near the top of the Bermuda Sun home page and also near the bottom of the home page (www.bermudasun.bm) under Announcements. 

The deadline for entry is May 23 with the prize winners announced on Monday, May 27. Full terms and conditions of the draw are available on the Bermuda Sun website.