This summer, we conducted a survey to find out more about our readers. We periodically conduct readership surveys to find out more about you-who you are, where you’re working, what you’re interested in reading about. Thank you, to all of you who received the survey and responded.
Here are a few fun facts about you:
- You have an average of 15.8 years in the erosion and sediment control industry.
- Forty percent of you are registered professional engineers.
- Where do you work? Thirty-nine percent are in the public sector; 34% do engineering or consulting work; and 27% are in construction, contracting, landscaping, or mining.
- On a somewhat positive note, given the state of the economy, of the 71% of respondents who were able to answer questions about your company’s or organization’s budget, 62% of you said your budget for erosion and sediment control-related products and services next year would stay the same or would increase.
- The printed version of the magazine has a circulation of over 23,000, and each issue gets passed along, on average, to more than one other person, bringing the total print magazine readership per issue to more than 51,000. When the readership of the digital version of Erosion Control is factored into the equation, the number of readers of each issue climbs by another 2,600. That doesn’t factor in the significant traffic drawn to our Web site, where every issue we’ve published since September 1999 is available free at www.erosioncontrol.com.
- About three-quarters of you have read at least three of the last four issues, and you spent an average of 50 minutes with each issue.
- Just over three-quarters of you said Erosion Control was better or much better compared to other publications that cover similar topics. (Thanks! )
The survey also asked about the tools you use on the job. While you enumerated many of the erosion and sediment control products you use regularly-from silt fence to seed to heavy equipment-one thing in particular stands out, and I single it out here because it’s part of a rapidly developing trend (the answer to this question would have been very different 10 years or even a few years ago). Nearly 70% of you use geographic information systems (GISs) as a regular part of your work; and roughly half of those of you who are not yet using them are planning to in the next year or two.
Overall, the survey results show us an experienced, deeply engaged, and well-informed readership, one that’s committed to ongoing learning and is open to new technologies and techniques. We’ll be incorporating your feedback and ideas as we plan our upcoming issues.
As you may have noticed when you glanced at the cover, the magazine has a new look beginning with this issue. Our senior graphic designer, Judith Donlon, has designed a new logo and an updated appearance for the articles, departments, and table of contents.
If you have comments on the new look, suggestions for upcoming articles, or comments on any aspect of the magazine, feel free, as always, to share them with me at [email protected].
