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pllogo.gif (10735 bytes) Readership Survey Results

Nearly 82 percent of Penn Lines’ 145,000-plus subscribers read the magazine cover to cover each month, with another 10 percent claiming "regular readership" (three out of four issues). On top of that, 45 percent clip or file articles of interest and 16 percent save the entire publication for future use.

These numbers are just a smattering of findings gleaned from the latest Penn Lines readership and demographic survey, conducted in August 2004 by New York-based Mediamark Research, Inc., one of the nation’s premier publication research firms.

While readership levels in the 80-plus range would be seen as extraordinary by most publications, they are not anything new for Penn Lines. Study after study over the past 18 years has consistently found the same thing ... cooperative consumers love the magazine and read it hungrily each month.

The comprehensive four-page, statistically valid mail survey reached 350 cooperative consumers selected at random from Penn Lines mailing lists. It discovered that each Penn Lines copy is read by 2.5 persons, with a strong average reading time of 37 minutes. Nearly 66 percent of readers have taken action within the past year after reading an article (discussing it with a friend, writing to a local official, etc.), 50 percent have contacted an advertiser (17 percent via a Web site), and 14 percent have actually purchased products or services advertised in the magazine or recommended them to someone else.

On the demographic side:

  • The average age of a Penn Lines reader is 55.

  • Nearly 41 percent of cooperative consumers have attended college or better, with 46 percent earning a high school diploma and 12 percent failing to graduate high school.

  • 72 percent of readers are married; 23 percent separated/widowed or divorced.

  • A whopping 95 percent of cooperative consumers own their home, with a typical home sitting on a lot comprising 2.8 acres.

  • 71 percent of cooperative households own a personal computer.

  • The average electric cooperative household reports an annual income of $49,200.

  • Nearly 76 percent describe the area they live in as rural, 17 percent a small town, with the rest ... presumably seasonal members ... a suburban-metropolitan region. Interestingly, more Pennsylvania electric cooperative consumers say they live in a rural setting than consumers served by electric cooperatives in any other state.

Some other results of interest include:

  • Roughly 47 percent of electric cooperative consumer-members own more than three acres of property, 24 percent one to three acres, 23 percent one-fourth to one acre, with the rest holding less than a quarter-acre of ground.

  • Within the past 12 months, electric cooperative members in Pennsylvania took an average of five trips, spending an average of $1,200.

  • Approximately 65 percent own fishing equipment, 75 percent a pair of binoculars, 56 percent a rifle, and 54 percent some type of exercise equipment.

  • Almost 24 percent of cooperative households have an all-terrain vehicle.

  • 84 percent of respondents purchased a home improvement product within the past 12 months, 50 percent involving kitchen or bathroom items.