by Melanie Jongsma, Publisher
LANSING, Ill. (November 16, 2021) – About a month ago we sent an email to people who support The Lansing Journal financially and asked them to complete a short survey. These people are the foundation of what The Lansing Journal tries to do for our community. Their support equips us to report, publish, and deliver local news every day — news that isn’t being reported by anyone else.
The results were enlightening. A few highlights:
Our most popular categories of news are Business and Crime
And least popular? Sports. Respondents could choose any of the 8 general categories we listed, and they could write in their own answers. Multiple responses were allowed. In descending order, these were the most popular categories of news, as indicated by the percentage of respondents who chose them:
- Business – 75.8%
- Crime and Police – 75.8%
- Arts and Entertainment – 68.2%
- Education – 59.1%
- Obituaries – 57.6%
- Health – 47.0%
- Faith – 45.5%
- Sports – 31.8%
Categories that were added by respondents included Local Politics, Human Interest/Features about Lansing People, and Local Events.
Readers are interested in other towns
We asked the question, “In addition to Lansing, are there other towns we should report on?” And we suggested eight surrounding towns. Respondents chose the following, in descending order of popularity:
- Lynwood – 54.7%
- Munster – 53.2% (One respondent added, “Scare the NWI Times and go after Munster ads and news.”)
- Calumet City – 51.6%
- South Holland – 48.4%
- Thornton – 36.0%
- Just Lansing – 29.7%
- Chicago – 4.7%
- Gary – 3.1%
Several respondents added comments such as, “Report on surrounding communities when the news impacts Lansing,” or is “interesting to Lansing residents.”
Readers appreciate The Lansing Journal
Our closing question on the short survey was simply, “Is there anything else you’d like us to know?” Readers responded with a lot of encouraging notes, including these:
“I am very proud to be able to say Lansing has a home paper. You’re doing a great job!!!”
“I do look forward to the morning emails!”
“I am very happy to see The Lansing Journal report on T.F. South sports. I stopped subscribing to the Times newspaper because it contained absolutely no Lansing or other neighboring Illinois towns’ news. Thank you Lansing Journal for filling that void.”
“I need a cheeseburger”
“You are doing a great job. I know more about what goes on in Lansing than my own town.”
“You folks do a GREAT job! It’s very rewarding to have (daily) news of our region!”
“I have gone to businesses you have profiled and small events you highlighted (church pie sale). Those hidden jewel stores! Sometimes I don’t notice new businesses until you have pointed them out.”
“You and your staff are doing a great job of keeping us informed about what is going on in our village, and we appreciate it. Without The Lansing Journal we would feel completely isolated and disconnected to our own community.”
Thank you to everyone who completed this survey and shared their feedback and ideas with us. Having this input helps us understand our readers better, and that helps us become a better newspaper.
I get it. you give money, you have a voice. you don’t give money, you don’t have a voice.
It’s probably more accurate to say we give more serious consideration to input from people who invest in this community newspaper. We would welcome your investment as well, Eb! https://thelansingjournal.com/support
But even though you don’t give money, we welcome your voice in comments like these or in our Local Voices pieces.