'Baldo' Finishes No. 7 in Fort Worth Star-Telegram Survey of its 42 comics
By David House Star-Telegram Staff Writer
Every page in a daily newspaper holds personal impact for many readers, but none more so than the comics pages.
There, characters and readers -- and the newspaper that brings them together -- can bond in close relationships that may last for a lifetime, even long after a comic strip is no longer syndicated. So it's no small matter when a newspaper wants to gauge such relationships via comics surveys.
The Star-Telegram's survey taken in December found a lively array of relationships between a diverse readership and the 42 features carried daily in the two-page comics package. Overall performance is stronger than two years ago, when the last survey was conducted.
In all, 3,399 readers -- hard-core devotees of comics, no doubt -- took time to complete either online or in-paper ballots to help us gauge our comics' performance. (To the reader who cast more than 900 ballots electronically and the reader who cast more than 600: Your ballots were pitched. But call or e-mail me. I'd like to know what you were thinking.)
Despite technological enhancement, the survey isn't scientific, but results indicate that the Star-Telegram is publishing a well-balanced package. Nearly every feature draws significant readership, generating across-the-board strength that carries an unwritten warning: Don't mess with this.
To find bedrock fans and soft spots, Gary Kromer, director of research, measured results with a "breadth/depth" test.
"Breadth" for a feature was the total percentage of response in two categories: "almost always" plus "often read." "Depth" was calculated by measuring "almost always read" as a percentage of all readership for a strip -- regular and occasional.
Baldo, which brings an Hispanic perspective to the lineup, scored a huge gain, surging from low in the rankings in '03 to No. 7 this year.
Meanwhile, two legacy strips that have been around for decades suffered sharp losses.
Blondie fell from No. 15 to No. 30 but pulled a 51.2 percent/53.1 percent showing. Beetle Bailey plunged from No. 5 to No. 33 but held readership of 43.9 percent/52.6 percent.
Here are the top 10 features according to the "breadth/depth" check:
