The Foreign Service Journal, April 2012

A P R I L 2 0 1 2 / F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L 17 L ETTER FROM THE E DITOR B Y S TEVEN A LAN H ONLEY O n behalf of my colleagues at the Foreign Service Journal and AFSA, I would like to thank the 796 people who took part in our recent online reader survey. That total represents nearly 5 percent of our current circulation of 17,000 — a very healthy response that has provided us with a lot of useful information. First, a few notes on the demo- graphics of the survey participants. Active-duty Foreign Service person- nel comprised 60 percent of the re- spondents, while 38 percent are FS retirees; the remaining 2 percent are not affiliated with the Foreign Serv- ice. Most of the respondents are be- tween 35 and 49 years old (27 percent), 50 and 59 (21 percent) or 60 and 65 (14 percent). Of the active-duty FS cohort, 20 percent are entry-level, 65 percent mid-level and 14 percent are in the Senior Foreign Service. (The rest did not indicate their grade.) Two-thirds of them are currently posted abroad. We asked respondents to rate the quality of the Foreign Service Journal as a whole, with 1 being poor and 10 being the best. Twenty-four percent selected 7 as the ranking, 30 percent chose 8, 11 percent said 9 and 4 per- cent give it a 10. (Only 10 percent as- signed a rating between 1 and 4.) When asked howmany of the 11 is- sues published last year they had read, 43 percent of respondents said they’d read 10 or 11; an additional 18 percent said they’d read seven to nine, and an- other 17 percent had read four to six issues from the past year. In terms of how much of a typical issue they read, 38 percent said between 26 and 50 percent, 25 percent said they read 51- 75 percent, and 13 percent read 76- 100 percent of each issue. We then listed all sections of the Journal (whether they appear every month or occasionally) and asked re- spondents to tell us whether they read each one always, often, rarely or never. As in the 2008 reader survey, AFSA News remains extremely popular: 36 percent of survey participants always read it and another 42 percent do so often, for a total of 78 percent. But several other sections also rank high: standalone features (81 percent), Speaking Out columns (79 percent) and Letters (78 percent). Next, we asked a series of questions related to the online version of the magazine (www.afsa.org/fsj). N early three-quarters (73 percent) of respon- dents said they prefer to read the print edition of the magazine. Of those who prefer the digital for- mat, a third (34 percent) regularly look at the current issue online, while 70 percent consult back issues posted on- line at least a few times a year. (You can now read all issues going back to January 2003, and we are in the process of adding issues from 2000, 2001 and 2002 to the online archives.) Most respondents said their overall experience with the digital version has been good (55 percent), fair (28 per- cent) or excellent (7 percent). A quar- ter of online readers would be in- terested in having the magazine avail- able via a mobile device or app, an op- tion we are investigating. Five questions invited respondents to offer written comments and sugges- tions, an invitation that several hun- dred of you took us up on. We are truly gratified by the degree of interest in the magazine the additional input demonstrates, and are in the process of going through those comments with a view to implementing those ideas that are feasible. In that spirit, we always welcome your thoughts and submissions. Please contact us at journal@afsa.org an d we will be delighted to respond. Thanks to all who took part in our reader survey, especially those who offered thoughtful comments on our content and format.