Traditional media outlets, just like BtoB properties, haunted by shrinking circulation and tempted by boundless opportunities of the Internet economy, are rapidly transforming themselves into multimedia companies. The road to successful transformation, however, is paved with many uncertainties.

Will a new publication’s web page attract traffic? Are the devoted readers going to be happy with the transformations (and stay with the publication to keep advertisers interested)? How the employees will take the transition?

Real-time feedback is becoming crucial to make the right and timely decisions. Newspaper managers are increasingly relying on the cutting-edge online research tools to gather and analyze the opinion of their readers and employees.

The Cincinnati Enquirer, the oldest daily newspaper in Greater Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky, was rapidly transforming itself into a dynamic multimedia company. The outlet created Cincinnati.Com, which became the top-rated site in Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana. The site represents 50 different information-providing brands that have very large audiences and thousands of customers. The Enquirer needed an effective, easy-to-use online survey tool to collect feedback from its readers and employees to make rapid adjustments to its growth strategy.

For six years, The Enquirer worked with several online survey solutions, including a local company and a well-known low-end survey vendor. However, none of those options properly met the company’s ambitious transformation program.

SOLUTION

The Enquirer decided to do use WebSurveyor for its survey projects.

“We got a simple, time-effective way of generating straightforward surveys to assess our audience and customers,” says James Jackson, The Enquirer’s Vice President of New Media. “WebSurveyor’s tools have power and flexibility, they offer excellent customer support, and the service is reasonably priced.”

RESULTS

The first project The Enquirer conducted using WebSurveyor was a community attitudes survey.

“We partnered with key local institutions and organizations and conducted two surveys to assess attitudes about Cincinnati among the people who live in the market and outside the market,” explains Jackson.

The survey was promoted by Cincinnati.Com and the four affiliated daily newspapers – The Cincinnati Enquirer, The Cincinnati Post, The Kentucky Enquirer and The Kentucky Post. More than 6,000 people responded.

“The findings helped civic and business leaders in our community to understand that the Greater Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky region was not communicating its benefits as a place to live, work and play to people inside and outside of the region.” says Jackson.

The findings showed the need for a comprehensive brand strategy for Greater Cincinnati. Not long after, a public-private partnership formed to create and execute such a brand strategy.

“That involved creating a brand called CincinnatiUSA, and it’s being promoted inside and outside the market,” says Jackson. “Another result was the creation of the CincinnatiUSA.com Web site. Many key local organizations, such as the regional Chamber of Commerce, incorporated the CincinnatiUSA brand identity into their own brand identity and marketing.”

The Enquirer also used WebSurveyor to test its new offerings, including NKY.com, a new Web site for the Northern Kentucky launched in 2005. The outlet selected two approaches to get the readers opinion.

First, it placed an intercept survey using pop-ups to invite people to share their thoughts. Second, it surveyed visibility groups of randomly selected people. “We asked them to use the site and fill out a detailed WebSurveyor questionnaire about their experience,” says Jackson. “On a few key points, the surveys generated key findings that changed the course we were taking.”

To boost its readership, they also regularly conduct reader interaction surveys. “We do news surveys all the time, and then write stories about the results. It’s a great way to engage and inspire readers, shape the local community’s dialogue on key issues and also to increase page views, views per visit and visit durations – metrics that affect our bottom line,” says Jackson.

The second project The Enquirer did was an in-depth employee survey.

“These surveys were helping us guide the strategic changes in our company,” says Jackson. “We are a 165-year old newspaper company evolving into a multimedia company in the twenty first century, and internal cultural change is needed in order to make significant shifts in the business strategy. We used this tool to have an anonymous, secure, confidential and scientific method of assessing or corporate culture, and to prioritize changes based on findings.”

The employee survey was conducted via e-mail invitations. “The response rate was very good – over 70 percent,” says Jackson. “The last two survey have resulted in significant cultural and operational changes within our company. Now the employee productivity and satisfaction is higher.”

“We really like the WebSurveyor tool very much, I am a strong advocate for it,” says Jackson. “I feel it’s the best option out there for us and for a lot of other companies.”

To learn more about The Enquirer, visit http://www.Cincinnati.com.

To learn more about doing online surveys, visit www.websurveyor.com