Tuesday, December 23, 2003
ALTERNET 2003: An end-of-year report to readers from Don Hazen
Date: Mon, 22 Dec 2003 19:02:36 -0800
From: Don Hazen info@alternet.org
To: densmore@newshare.com
Subject: AlterNet Reader Survey Results: A Snapshot of You
A Special Message from AlterNet: http://www.alternet.org
____________________________________________________________
Dear AlterNet reader,
As the year draws to a close, I want to offer, on behalf of everyone
at AlterNet, our best wishes for the holiday. It's been a challenging,
bittersweet year, but also a great one for AlterNet, particularly in
terms of the warm support you, our readers, have provided by
supporting us financially, forwarding articles and buying books.
Also, 11,280 of you answered our reader survey; an extraordinary
number, more than 20 percent of our core headline readers. Many
thousands of you wrote wonderful things about our work and we
appreciate every word, including the advice, the suggestions, and a
few things you could do without.
We found out that:
* You are slightly more women (51%) than men (48%), which is
highly unusual in the online world; and 1% are transgendered;
* You are highly educated: 37% have advanced degrees with 13%
PhDs or professional degrees, and 73% have college degrees
overall;
* 87% live in the US; 4% in Canada; 46% in cities; 25% in
suburbs; and 25% rural or small towns;
* 35% describe yourselves as progressives; 28% as liberals; 9% as
independent and 7% as radical;
* Your presidential preference was a virtual dead heat, with 28%
voting for both Dean and Kucinich (actually, Howard nipped Dennis
by 69 votes of 10,945 cast); Wesley Clark was third with 11%
while 18% of you are still undecided at this stage;
* While 27% of you voted for Nader in 2000, only 11% say you
would vote for him in 2004; * by far the group you belong to or
most support is MoveOn at 69%; followed by local Public
Broadcasting (40%), the ACLU (38%), True Majority (29%), Sierra
Club (25%) and Planned Parenthood (24%);
* Not surprisingly, MoveOn.org is the website you visit the most,
followed by the New York Times (54%), the BBC (40%), The Nation
(30%), the Onion (28%), CNN (28%), Common Dreams (27%), Tom
Paine (26%), and Working for Change (24%);
* As AlterNet's audience has grown it has gotten older: 49% are
50 years or older (only one member of our edit staff is over 50)
while 23% are under 34;
* You are a multiclass group; 24% make over $50k, and 23% make
under $20k;
* Your workplaces are varied: 18% are self-employed, followed by
corporations (17%); government (16%) and retired (16%). A
surprisingly small 8% work at nonprofits and 8% are students;
* The war in Iraq is your highest priority issue at 68%, followed
by Election 2004 (67%), rights and liberties (65%), media and
culture and environment both at 49%;
* You spend a lot of time online; 60% more than 11 hours and 31%
more than 20;
* You are very active: 87% engage in online activism and 60% give
money to groups doing good work; 78% forward articles to friends.
So that is a snapshot of you, the AlterNet reader. We thank you for
everything.
And don't forget, we're a little less than halfway to our goal of
raising $60,000 for election coverage in 2004; we'd appreciate your
support if you are so moved.
http://www.alternet.org/donate/
And it's never too late to order a copy of "The Five Biggest Lies that
Bush Told Us," at $10.
Towards a great 2004,
Don Hazen,
Executive Editor
http://www.alternet.org
