Steamboat Springs — The Steamboat Pilot & Today launches an online survey today to gather information and opinions to better serve its readers.

“My hope is that many of our readers will go to http://www.steamboatpilot.com and take a few minutes to fill out the reader survey,” Steamboat Pilot & Today Publisher Bryna Larsen said. “We’re really looking for ways to better serve our readers and advertisers. This online survey will give us a clear roadmap for how we can do a better job in the future.”

The survey will run for one week and is composed of multiple choice and open-ended questions to gauge the media consumption, spending and lifestyle habits of the Yampa Valley community. Pulse Research, an independent polling company based in Portland, Ore., designed the questions and will compile the results.

The open-ended section allows readers to offer suggestions for how the newspaper might improve.

In addition to providing a service to the community’s news source, survey participants will be in the running for a 10-day, 20-day or season pass to Steamboat Ski Area.

“We are fortunate that Steamboat Ski and Resort Corporation has partnered with us on this project,” Larsen said. “All online survey participants will be entered to win one of three possible passes to the ski resort. I think that’s pretty exciting.”

The online survey is a follow-up to a telephone survey the Pilot & Today conducted this summer.

“Our telephone survey taught us that 68 percent of those polled in Routt County turn to a newspaper first as their media choice for community news and information as well as advertising information,” Larsen said. “And, of those people, 97 percent are reading the Steamboat Pilot & Today and/or Steamboat Today.

“So, now that we know that exciting information, we want to know what we might do for our readers and advertisers to make our newspapers more useful and meaningful,” she continued. “The best way to get that information is simple – just ask.”