Results .of the
P. R.
Questionnaire
EDITORs' NoTE:
After the March-April issue this year, we sent a ques–
tionnaire to our 800-odd individual subscribers, asking for certain infor–
mation about themselves and their impressions of the magazine. About
one-third of the blanks, 250 in all, were filled out and returned, not a
bad response considering that the questions were such as to require con·
siderable
time
and
effor~
for a serious answer. The replies, needless to
say, are of the greatest value and interest to the editors.
How accurate a picture of PR's readers does this sampling give?
250 is about a tenth of the total circulation of the issue preceding the ques·
tionnaire and is an even smaller proportion of the last (May-June} issue,
sales of which are approaching 3500 copies. Furthermore, the results are
distorted by the fact that, while 35% of the magazine's total circulation
iJ
in New York City, only 28% of the replies came from
ther~
discrepancy
which probably
has
cultural as well as geographical meaning. It should
be borne in mind, therefore, that such generalizations as are made below
about PR's readers, refer to the 2.50 answerers of the questionnaire.
The following summary of the results was compiled by Dwight
Macdonald.
1.
Who reads PR?
(a) AGE: PR readers are quite young. Over half of them-53%–
are in their twenties, and another 27% are in their thirties, leaving 3%
below 20 and 17% over 40. The average age is 32, which is slightly
under the average age of the editors. The youngest is 16, the oldest 80.•
(b) OCCUPATION: The five most frequent occupations are: teacher
(19o/o),
student (12% ), writer
(10 o/o),
office worker (5% ), doctor
(5%).
t
8% are either unemployed or retired. Other common occupa·
tions are: business executive, journalist, engineer. Among our readers
there is one broker, one freight agent, one life insurance president, one
blueprint maker, and one surveyor. There is also one Kansas dirt farmer,
who first heard of the magazine from the Trotskyist press. Only 4o/o of
•The English literary monthly,
Horizon,
also sent out a questionnaire recently–
from which, in fact, ours was largely copied. Its readers turned out to be even younger:
only 15% over 40. The amazingly high figure of 15% under 20 was also reported.
tCf.
Horizon,
which has 25% teachers and 12% students. The third largest group
(8% ) consists of clergymen, a fact all the more curious considering that PR's answer·
ers included just
one
cleric- a priest. These are the normal peacetime occupations of
.Horizon's
subscribers, by the way. The figures are much smaller today, as the result
of the war, which has sent 17% of
Horizon's
readers into either the armed forces or
full·time Civil Defence work. This tendency is just beginning to make itself felt here,
but may be expected
to
play a big part in the future of a magazine with well over
half its readers of draft age. Already we are getting letters from readers, and con·
tributors, who have been drafted into the army. (See those printed in this issue.)
344
