I guess I should know by now that you guys are an intrepid bunch, but in a little less than 24 hours, no less than 8,000 of you have answered our reader survey (that’s as I write this at around 12.30 am EST). I’m incredibly grateful. It’s also really really interesting and at times surprising. In keeping with the general principle of blog transparency, here’s a link to the page that gives you the full results so far – constantly updated. Of course, this isn’t a random sample, but the size of it (slightly less than a half of our regular daily visitors) means it’s telling us something. Check out the filter on the site to see the fascinating intersections of various variables. Here’s what I found striking at first blush: Half of you are under 40 and only 20 percent are over 50 – with our biggest age group being 31 – 35. This is a really young group – much younger than the usual readers of political magazines and newspapers. Despite the youth of the sample, over half of you have post-graduate degrees. 60 percent of you visit at least once a day. You’re also overwhelmingly male (85 percent) and heterosexual (87 percent). This will drive Richard Goldstein and others nuts – but what it means to me is that most of you couldn’t care less what my sexual orientation is, you’re just interested in the content of the site. To my mind, that’s a huge cultural milestone – a model of a future in which sexual orientation becomes a non-issue.
THE POLITICS: The political spectrum is skewed right, as you’d expect, but 40 percent are independent, moderate, center-left or liberal. I realize I stupdily left out ‘libertarian’ in this category, thus ensuring that the touchiest group of individualists alive have bombarded me with emails. I’m sorry, guys. I’m very sympathetic, as you know. My mistake. I was also struck by the fact that California is our biggest state; and that we’re very blue-state heavy. I guess the site attracts blue-state dissidents or simple skeptics, or it reflects the often ignored fact that large numbers of people in the blue states are not knee-jerk liberals. There are many permutations I haven’t yet worked out: Are the gays wealthier than the straights? Are the women more liberal than the men? Are the married people more conservative? But you can figure all this out for yourself if you feel like finding out more about your fellow readers by clicking here. Given this enormous early response, we’re going to keep the survey running for just one more day so that we’re not too skewed toward our more loyal readers. Let me know if you find any more interesting nuggets in the data analysis. Given all the post-graduate degrees out there, you’re probably better at it than I am. It’s also revealing, it seems to me, as a snapshot of what the broader blogger readership is made up of (hint: way smart and clued in, Howell), and should lead to some interesting questions and debates. But that’s for the future. For now, once again: THANKS. With these demographics, there surely must be a sponsor out there willing to fund the site. And if you haven’t participated yet, you have 24 hours. Here’s the link for the survey itself.
THE TOBACCO LAWSUIT SCAM: What a wonderful merry-go-round is going on in North Carolina. Can we say unintended consequences of the punitive nanny-state?
THE NEW SCHOOL DEBATE: Norah Vincent and I will be dragged before the New School politburo on Thursday night to face socialist writer Richard Goldstein and professional far-left activist Carmen Vasquez. It’s at 8 pm at the Tishman auditorium at the New School at 66, W 12th Street in New York City. The “moderator” is the woman who runs the Gay Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, Joan Garry. Garry’s group, GLAAD, is credited in the acknowledgments of Goldstein’s book for helping him with ‘research,’ research that has now been shown to be simply wrong and (ironically enough) defamatory. Still, this is the left’s turf and it’s a little naive to expect neutrality. Wish us luck. And show up if you feel like it.
The Dish 