Recently we asked for your input in our annual survey, and once more, the readers of The Urbanist have answered. This year, we had 459 responses to our reader survey. While we will spend the coming weeks and months interpreting your responses and how we want to grow to meet our audience’s wants and needs, we want to share some immediate takeaways with you.
You love our transportation coverage
Much like our previous readership survey, transportation remains far and away our most popular and trusted reporting topic, with 50% of responders listing it as the topic they are most interested in reading about and another 16% listing it as the topic they are second most interested in. When asked about the quality of our reporting, 71% of respondents believe our transit reporting to be good (4/5) or phenomenal (5/5).
This is in line with our expectations; transit has been a cornerstone of our reporting since the beginning and has helped build the audience we have today. Our reporters are intimately familiar with the policy area, and there are ongoing discussions about transit across the region, so you can rest assured that our transit reporting is not going anywhere.
Land use and housing affordability are growing issue areas
Continuing a trend from our previous survey, readers want to hear more about land use and housing affordability, with 25% listing the former and 18% listing the latter as your top priorities. Combined with those of you who listed these issue areas as the topic you are the second most interested in reading about, there is a growing appetite for quality reporting on these issues that, if this trend continues, may grow to rival the desire for our transportation coverage.
The quality of our reporting on these issues is similarly trustworthy, with roughly 75% believing our reporting on these issues to be good or phenomenal. We aim to continue to improve by this time next year, and there will be plenty of opportunities to do so, given how much action there is around comprehensive plans, affordable housing, and transit-oriented development this year.
Some other noteworthy preferences you have made clear:
- Reversing a trend from our previous reader survey, there is decreased interest in Urbanism 101 or articles introducing you to the baseline, introductory concepts of urbanism.
- There is interest in articles talking about the relationship between education and urbanism. With Seattle Public Schools looking at some budget cuts, there is potential for very fruitful discussion and reporting here that we are interested in exploring.
- There is a core contingent that wants to hear more about where urbanism and climate issues/environmentalism intersect.
- There is a core contingent of folks who want to get tied into advocacy through The Urbanist. The good news is that The Urbanist recently hired a new Director of Development and Events (yours truly) who will be able to help readers bridge the gap between being informed and doing something with all of those opinions.
You want more
When asked what you want to see more of, 40% (a plurality) of you said you wanted more articles, with 17% of those specifically looking for more articles covering a greater geographic area. This isn’t surprising. As more people get their local news from The Urbanist, more stories outside of Seattle is a natural next step. We want this too, and are intentionally focusing more of our energy towards geographic diversity in articles, as you can see in our publishing team’s inaugural article this year: 2025 Is Poised To Be the Year of the Eastside.
But if we are going to expand our total article output, there is something we need to address.
The majority of readers are not subscribers or donors
More than 70% of the people who took our survey are not subscribers or have not donated to The Urbanist at any point – and that is OK! The number is even higher among the broader population of readers. The Urbanist has been and will continue to be a freely accessible news source for all. However, if you truly want more articles – we need your financial support. The Urbanist is a nonprofit – your dollars are reinvested into our team and publication to provide you with high quality reporting about the issues you care about.
If you want more articles, we need more resources to pay freelancers and, hopefully, hire more full-time reporters. The best thing you can do is set up a recurring donation so we can rely on a consistent income when planning our growth.
While we’re on the topic of subscribers, many of you indicated that you were interested in the option for subscribers to turn off advertisements, something we have long been interested in as well. A surprising 32% of you indicated that you would be interested in getting some Urbanist merch, and another 27% were interested in The Urbanist hosting events with expert speakers, forums, and panels. As mentioned earlier, we are already in the process of revamping our events program, but the interest in merchandise is new to our ears and we hope to satiate that desire in the coming months.
Additionally, many of you indicated you were interested in receiving The Urbanist’s newsletter. You can sign up to receive the newsletter below.
Urbanist’s surveyed skew white, male, and educated
While the survey indicates our readership skews male and White, respondents were more diverse than last year. Bear in mind while reading these statistics that this was an opt-in unscientific survey, with the demographic section a voluntary portion.
- White readers composed 79% of respondents, down 5% compared to last year.
- The second largest demographic was Asian/Asian American at 10%.
- The proportion of our reader respondents who are male dropped from 79% to 67%, with 22% being female, 6% identifying as non-binary or gender-fluid, and 2.5% being trans (mostly trans women).
- 45% of respondents are aged 25-39, 26% are aged 40-59, 18% are aged 60+, and 11% are under 25.
- The survey indicates an equal split (45% each) of readers living in single family homes and living in apartment buildings.
- 43% of respondents, the plurality, have graduate degrees, with another 40% having undergraduate degrees, 3% having an associates degree, 8.7% having attended college but attained a degree, and 3% not having a college degree.
A thank you to everyone who took the time to take the reader survey, and another thank you to all of our readers. This website is, ultimately, for you, our readers, and we are grateful for the support you have shown for our vision for our region.
Diego Batres
Diego is the Director of Development and Events of The Urbanist. He believes in making Seattle and the Puget Sound region a model example of good urban living for the rest of the country by expanding transit, ending our housing crisis, pedestrianizing our neighborhoods. He graduated from Seattle University in 2023, and currently lives in Seattle’s Central District.
