Survey Targets <i>New Wave</i> Readers

New Wave, the online daily news publication of Tulane University, is looking for reader input. A reader survey is available online through Monday (Oct. 25).

As an annual ritual — and marking five years of publication this fall — the New Wave staff asks readers to provide input and make suggestions.

“We've made several significant changes to New Wave since last year's survey,” says Aaron Martin, web communications manager.

He notes several improvements that occurred in 2010 as the staff collaborated to streamline New Wave. The front page and e-mail designs were refined to be cleaner and simpler. Archiving was improved to include all articles. A “share” button was added to article pages to promote social syndication by readers using Facebook and Twitter. The editorial staff also adjusted writing styles and topic selections, while expanding into more multimedia production.

Rachel Hoormann, director of university web communications, adds that the New Wave has experimented with publishing throughout the day by adding a breaking news banner to the home page on several occasions, as well as ongoing assessments and improvements to viewing the site on various devices and web browsers.

“The great thing about online publishing is you can evolve rapidly with the times, but we don't want to follow trends in a vacuum,” says Hoormann. “Annual reader feedback is vital to determine which changes will best benefit our readers.”

Martin notes that the 2009 survey, compared to 2008, showed interest increased significantly among respondents for stories providing Tulane expert and faculty views on mainstream issues.

“In response to the feedback, the New Wave staff focused more articles utilizing faculty expertise,” he says. “When the oil spill occurred in the Gulf of Mexico, the staff created a disaster series to present expert opinions from various academic fields at Tulane.”

Complete your New Wave reader survey.