By Seth Richardson
The Park Bugle continues to fulfill its mission — at least, according to readers.
A big thanks to the 325 respondents to the 2025 Park Bugle reader survey. Reader input helps the board guide the Bugle on its mission: To strengthen our community by providing local news and stories that transform readers into neighbors.
Your survey submissions helped the board understand that 81% of readers feel the Bugle is fulfilling its mission, giving us a ranking of between 8 and 10.
We also gained valuable insight into how readers consume the Bugle. Sixty-nine percent said they read between 7 and 12 issues of the Bugle a year. The front page was readers’ favorite section, with 80% saying they read it always or on occasion. Events narrowly came in second with 79%.
And our website resonates with many of you. Nearly 40% of respondents said they read the Bugle on the website either primarily (23.1%) or in conjunction with the monthly print newspaper (16.4%).
More than 47% of you are between the ages of 25 and 54 while just under 47% of you are 55 and older. Fifty-nine percent own their own home.
Your personalized feedback also helps us better understand what we got right.
“I really appreciate the stories about people in the neighborhood and their particular interests and accomplishments,” read one comment. “Social cohesion is a value for our community and I think these stories support that value.”
But it also provided us guidance on elements we could include in the future. Several mentioned wanting more photography and graphics. One mentioned including local gardening tips, a monthly book club or a “tech-savvy” column to broaden our audience. Many of you wanted more coverage of crime and policing.
Still, we were thrilled that so many neighbors said the Bugle holds real importance for them.
“Even the features I don’t read every issue are important to me as a part of the Bugle’s community coverage,” one reader said.
As always, we continue to solicit input from the community any chance we get. We will always work toward making the communities of St. Anthony Park, Como, Lauderdale, Falcon Heights and the wider Twin Cities the best they can be.
Stop by one of our event booths to give us suggestions. Or reach out to [email protected] to share your feedback.
Respondents to the survey had the chance to win a $50 gift card to Bolé Ethiopian Cuisine, Congratulations to survey participant Ryan Power-Theisen for winning the gift card! And a big thanks again to everyone who took the time to share your feedback — your voices truly help guide the Bugle’s work in the community.
Seth Richardson is a journalist, lives in St. Anthony Park and serves on the Park Bugle board of directors.