Report Card results: Good, but familiar problems persist
We continue to score a respectable B overall, but the areas in which we fare least well remain the same.
It is a source of both encouragement and concern for us that the results of our Reader Report Card, now in its eighth consecutive year, are so consistent. It's encouraging because we continue to score a solid, respectable B overall, a concern because we're not pushing our grade much higher and because the areas in which we fare least well remain the same from year to year.
As in the past, the results of the report card we asked you to fill out a couple of months ago, found that we do best in the areas of usefulness, timeliness, design and delivery. You continue to give us our weakest ratings in grammar and spelling, wholeness of our stories and fairness.
We are improving. Our overall average was up slightly this year, and within individual categories our average grade point went up at least slightly in almost every area -- with the most improvement coming in the area of fairness. We declined in only two categories -- grammar and spelling and delivery.
Your comments are particularly valuable. Here, without response from me, are just a few samples from scores of pages of comments you left:
On grammar and spelling
"I am appalled at the use of spell checker rather than true editing."
"You have GOT to proofread. Every single day I catch at least one, but often several typos or glaring grammatical errors. Many times I'll be reading a story and it will just stop. It's stuff like that that really keeps this paper from becoming world-class."
On your disappointments
"Those 'half pages' that fold over first section of the paper are extremely annoying... how do you read that section without it falling all over the place? I never read that part of your paper for that reason."
"Don't like what you did with the TV book in Sunday's paper. You never list the channel numbers any more. Everything crowded and only half of movies listed."
On your favorites
"The Food section is very good, especially Annie Overboe's and Don Mauer's columns."
"Sunday business section is excellent and delivery deserves an A+++."
"I can not say enough about our current delivery people. They are the BEST EVER."
"Good job of covering international, national and local news."
On fairness
"You depend way too much on AP reports. Their anti-administration bias is overwhelming, i.e. Iraq coverage, global warming coverage. The majority of editorials are left or lean left."
"The suburban area continues to turn politically blue. The Daily Herald seems to have missed this demographic. Additionally your anti-public school (except scholars and athletes) and anti-teacher bias is glaring."
On news selection:
"There is not enough local …news in my paper. I find more national news that I can see on TV or hear on the radio."
"Please use the front page for important news stories and keep human interest or feel-good articles inside."
Final word
"If you have to be told that you're doing fine, then you must think you're 'doubtful.' I think you're great! You're doing fine -- so keep on doing fine and you won't have to ask people how you are doing."
We appreciate such a vote of confidence, but we must "trust but verify," as Ronald Reagan said, so we'll strive to keep in touch.