Insights from and about you Wirepoints’ readers from 2022 – Wirepoints

“Push back against the age as hard as it pushes against you.”

― Flannery O’Connor

By: Mark Glennon*

This is to share some insights we gained over the holidays, mostly about you readers, from data we get and notes from you.

We also hope this sheds light on how we approach our work at Wirepoints. We follow the research about how people get their news, particularly over the internet. It’s a fascinating subject for us data geeks and hugely important since it shapes people’s worldview, and we try to apply that research here.

First, here’s a big gold star for Wirepoints readers: You actually read stuff. You spend on average well over four minutes per column on our Wirepoints original pieces. That blows away industry norms that are widely found to be about a minute or less per column. Most readers on other sites read the headline and the first couple paragraphs then move on. Even for long-form columns over 1,000 words, as ours often are, readers on other sites usually spend around two minutes or less. You apparently have over twice their attention span.

You’re apparently getting younger, too! In years past our readers tended to be older. In 2019, for example, our largest group of readers was age 55 to 64 and just 2% were between 18 and 24. Today, our largest age group is 35 to 44, over 8% are between 18 and 34, and all of the younger cohorts have grown very significantly.

We need work, however, to reach more female readers. Just 37% of our web readers are women, which has been about that way from the start, for reasons unclear.

About a third of you are pilgrims, as one of you recently put it — ex-Illinoisans. That portion has been trending upward, reaching half of our online readership in some recent months. We hope you are working to assure that your new states do not make Illinois’ mistakes.

The topics that deeply resonate with you broadened significantly last year, continuing a trend. We know quickly whether an article matters or bores you. Google Analytics and other tools tell us in great detail how many readers an article gets, where they are, how often it is shared and much more – pretty much everything short of names and personal information.

In years past, our top issue was Illinois’ state and local fiscal crisis, particularly pensions, which we view as an existential threat. High taxes, particularly property taxes, which are a consequence of that fiscal crisis, have always been hot buttons. They still are and rightly so.

But last year, recognition of multiple, equally frightening threats to the state culminated, including failing public schools, woke political indoctrination in education, shrinking population and tax base, one-party government protected by a rigged system, excessive public union power and, most importantly, crime.

You should know, however, that we choose our topics based on what we think is important, not you. So, for example, we wrote regularly in the past about reckless spending on certain green energy programs. The articles were duds. Few read them.

But we stayed on it and last year interest picked up markedly and we are happy to see that so many now question what we regard as naïve over-reliance on prohibitively expensive renewable energy projects in Illinois.

On the other hand, we’ve also written often about the progressives’ distortion of the news, the left’s assault on free speech and the regular media’s suppression of facts they don’t like. Those articles of ours got little traction but we have no intention of backing off. We believe in the marketplace of ideas and that its enemies are enemies of democracy itself.

On that, we expect no help from Illinois media. Though we send hundreds of thousands of readers to them each year through links to their articles, many Illinois traditional news sources pretend we don’t exist. Last week, for example, the Chicago Tribune wrote about the problem of 911 calls going unanswered – as if they discovered the problem. They made no mention of our column from June that exposed the problem, which my collogues researched meticulously. The Tribune could easily have written about the problem six months earlier than they did by reporting our research.

The Tribune has at least occasionally published our guest articles, but a number of other outlets, such as the Chicago Sun-Times and Politico, have almost never mentioned us.

So be it. They will continue to lose readership to sources like us and those who recognize our work.

Talk radio remains a bright spot for real debate and some local TV channels are balanced, but for the most part Illinois news is a fictional narrative, nakedly suppressing facts and analysis that might upset the ruling establishment’s worldview. Illinois, like most of America, would be an entirely different place if legacy media were honest.

The good news is that national media outlets now routinely cite or publish our work, which is why we cannot give a true estimate of our full reach. The Wall Street Journal, RealClear, ZeroHedge, The New York Times and many others have cited our work approvingly, and many lesser-known outlets often republish our columns, which we encourage with no charge. Those sources and our radio appearances now give us far more reach than just our measurable website traffic.

You readers seem intent on understanding how bad things truly are, based on the notes many of you sent along with your donations during our year-end fundraising. We were flattered and humbled but, more importantly, delighted by how many recognize the full gravity of the insanity that has overtaken Illinois and most of the nation.

If I were to summarize the attitude in those notes from you, it would be that quote at the top from novelist Flannery O’Connor, “Push back against the age as hard as it pushes against you.” In that, we share your dedication.

*Mark Glennon is founder of Wirepoints.