[:en]A survey of churchgoers taken a few months ago confirmed the continuing popularity of (free) printed issues of Gospel Light, with 75% indicating that they want a printed version either alone or along with an online version. As such, the next printed issue is under preparation.

What content is being read

Testimonies and photos were the most popular, with almost 70% indicating that they viewed these sections. News (63%) and Bible studies (47%) came next, trailed by Chinese articles (17%).

What format is wanted

Dividing respondents by their preferred format for Gospel Light revealed interesting divergences.

preferred format	median age	intending to keep for more than 1 year
printed	60 years	50%
both	50 years	61%
digital	41 years	21%

It seems that roughly half of those who want to receive a printed copy intend to keep their issues for the long term. The subset that also wants a digital version is about a decade younger than the others and is even more likely to keep their issues for the long term.

In contrast, those who are ok with digital-only are the youngest, and the vast majority dispose of their issues within a year, with 68% indicating disposal within 4 months.

Who responded

The median age of all respondents was 52 years while that of the official church membership is roughly 49. This means that proportionally more elder members responded.

Many children, e.g. attending Sunday school, were also not surveyed although they are among the target audience of LitCom’s efforts. Less than 7% of the 176 responses came from those 19 and below.

115 responses came from the bilingual service while only 61 came from the English service where time is much more tight to conduct the survey. However, responses were generally similar, except in two aspects:

Question	Bilingual service	English service
Chinese articles	23% read the Chinese articles	5% read the Chinese articles
Format wanted	50% print only 17% digital only	31% print only 33% digital only

Nevertheless, this data from the adult population will be useful to the Literature Committee in deciding how to best allocate the resources entrusted to it. Thanks to all who participated.[:]