Local Government FOCUS recently commissioned the Centre for Local Government Research to undertake a survey about Local Government publications with Local Government representatives. Telephone surveys were conducted with randomly selected Chief Executive Officers (and equivalent), Mayors, Councillors and Senior Council staff from Councils across Australia.
Interviews were conducted from 22–25 November 2004.
Of the total of 507 surveys conducted, the breakdown of respondents was 15% CEOs, 12% Mayors, 36% Councillors and 37% Senior Managers.
The following is a summary of the Centre for Local Government Research’s key findings. Local Government FOCUS newspaper was clearly the best known publication with 83% of respondents indicating they had heard of it. This result represented the highest awareness for the five Local Government print media tested.
Local Government FOCUS newspaper (printed version) was clearly the most used publication, compared to the remaining eight print and online media tested. Forty-nine per cent of respondents had used this publication often or very often in the last 12 months, compared to between 4% – 34% of respondents who had used the other media with the same frequency.
The ALGA weekly email bulletin followed Local Government FOCUS newspaper in frequency of usage over the last 12 months. Thirty-four per cent of respondents indicated they had used this often or very often.
Of the 408 respondents (80%) who had read FOCUS in the past 12 months almost half of these (47%) indicated that five people or more had access to their copy of Local Government FOCUS. On average, eight people had access to each copy of Local Government FOCUS.
CEOs and their Senior Managers were more likely than Mayors and Councillors to have greater numbers of other people accessing their copy of Local Government FOCUS. Thirty-one per cent of CEO respondents and 27% of Senior Manager respondents indicated that 10 to 20 people had access to their copy, compared to 8% of Mayors and 10% of Councillors.
A further 23% of CEOs and 19% of Senior Manager respondents indicated that 20 or more people had access to their copy of Local Government FOCUS.
