Since the inception of On The Bay, my goal as editor has been to create a magazine that fosters dialogue and creates connections with – and among – our readers. This has been my greatest wish over the past 10-plus years, and continues to be my goal as we move forward into the next 10 years. Thankfully, in these days of social media, On The Bay can finally engage our audience on a much broader scale.
Our Facebook page is garnering new “likes” every day as we strive to use this tool to connect with our readers in between issues of the magazine. Readers are signing up for our e-newsletter, Between The Pages, which offers a behind-the-scenes look at On The Bay. And more and more of you are reading our articles and our full “flip” version of the magazine on our website.
Engaging Our Audience
Now we are starting to see how audience engagement can directly impact our content in the magazine. In one recent example, we put out a call for nominations on our Facebook page asking readers to nominate people who have made a difference in our community as Grassroots Heroes. The result was that we had the most nominations ever in our eight years of profiling Grassroots Heroes. All of the heroes we profiled in our Winter 2014 issue came from reader nominations – a first for us – and we have several nominations already for 2015! Thank you to those who sent in their nominations. To nominate a 2015 grassroots hero, go to www.onthebaymagazine.com.
There are several more examples of audience engagement in this issue of On The Bay. When we decided we wanted to include an article about “man caves” in our Spring Home & Garden issue, we took to Facebook and asked readers for ideas. The result is that this issue features four local manspaces ranging from home theatre rooms and billiard rooms to music-themes rooms and even an Italian restaurant grotto – all suggested by our readers!
The Survey Said …
It’s fun and exciting to have our audience more engaged in the actual content of the magazine, so we decided to take the next step and ask you what types of stories you like best and what you would like to see more of in On The Bay Magazine. We designed a brief, three-question reader survey and posted it on our Facebook page, in our e-newsletter and on our website.
We received over 160 responses from all over Southern Georgian Bay, and the results showed that On The Bay is giving readers what they want – and they want more of it. Stories about local issues such as wind turbines, gravel pits, water levels and public health are most popular among our readers, followed closely by people profiles and restaurants, food and drink.
Readers also rated the following types of stories as “very interesting” in almost equal measure:
- home improvement, design and décor
- arts and culture
- local business
- recreation
Close behind, readers ranked the following types of stories “interesting”:
- personal opinion
- featured homes
- real estate and development
None of the categories ranked as “not interesting,” according to the survey averages. When it comes to the style and length of articles, readers reported that they most like informational stories, followed closely by:
- personal stories and viewpoints
- photo essays
- shorter articles and sidebars
Longer features were slightly behind, but readers still like them, according to the survey averages. None of the article styles fell into to the “don’t like” category, according to the survey.
What the Future Holds
What does all of this mean? It means we’re doing a lot of things right, and could be doing more of some things. And we listened. In this issue, you will see more brief, informational-style articles, particularly on the topics of real estate and development. We plan to continue to introduce more of these types of stories in every issue of On The Bay, along with more on arts and culture and more on recreational activities.
As a direct result of the survey, we’ve also introduced an ongoing photo essay, Artist Spotlight, featuring the work of one of our talented local artists. We will feature a different artist in each issue of the magazine, using our larger format to showcase the artist’s work as only On The Bay can.
All I have left to say is, thank you! Thank you for reading On The Bay, thank you for liking our Facebook page, thank you for signing up for our newsletter, thank you for your ideas, comments and suggestions, and thank you for completing our survey. More than ever, On The Bay is your magazine, and I am honoured to be your editor. ❧
P.S. You may have noticed one more change in this issue of On The Bay – our cover. Since our first issue in June 2004, our cover design has included an “Oxford box” – a white box around the cover photo. To make the most of our larger size and the visual impact it affords, we’ve removed the Oxford box so that the cover photo now fills the entire cover. We hope you like the new look!
