Every two weeks, circulation-department telemarketers randomly recruit a new group of 50 subscribers to participate. The readers are offered a month s free subscription as incentive. In return, they agree to telephone our audiotext service daily for two weeks. Punching in a personal identification number to reach a special line, each participant spends about five minutes a day answering recorded questions about the newspaper, registering answers electronically by pushing phone buttons. Readers press a number from 1 to 6, with 6 indicating very fair and complete, and 1 indicating big problems.
Participants can call in any time, up to midnight, to report on that day s newspaper.
It s a convenient way to get feedback which is then automatically captured in a database and, with a little help, converted into daily report cards. The results are posted in the newsroom and pored over at news meetings. The report card s final query departs from the number-punching protocol. To which readers may answer verbally into the phone. They re also invited to add any general comments about that day s edition.