By John Norton

Please help us help you -- and a special offer

A number of you have recently received a reader survey from us. One of the goals of the survey was to find out what you especially like (or dislike), or find useful (or not so much) about our newspaper.

Thank you to all who participated; the response rate was extraordinarily and gratifyingly high. I'm looking forward to seeing the full survey report soon.

But I'd greatly appreciate also hearing from those of you who did not receive a survey form. Reader feedback is a key method for us to measure how well we're doing our job, and identify areas in which we need to improve.

So -- especially if you are not someone who normally picks up a pen (or keyboard) to respond to something you read in a newspaper -- I warmly invite you to take a couple of minutes right now to read through the survey questions below and send me an answer (either at the mailing address below or at (feed back@osv.com). And please don't feel compelled to answer all the questions; even one or two would be a help.

• What is the first thing you read in the paper every week?
• What is the thing you read last, or never?
•  Do you find that you read pretty much the entire paper every week? Or three-quarters? Or half? Or less?
•  How often do you read the editorial (on the penultimate page of the paper)? (And how often do you find it persuasive?)
•  How often do you read the regular columnists (Erlandson, Msgr. Campion, Lockwood, Tomeo, Olson, Msgr. Mannion) and who is your favorite?
•  If you had my job, what would you change about the paper?
  If you have any other comments, please don't hesitate to make them.

Finally, I'd like to thank our subscribers for their exceptional loyalty. Our turnover rates are very low; some of you have been steady subscribers for as many as 28 years, according to our circulation manager. And we remain the best-circulated national Catholic newsweekly in the United States.

If you value reading OSV, please consider letting your friends, family members, co-workers and fellow parishioners know about us.

They can try us for free: We have just launched a special offer to non-subscribers of seven free trial issues of the newspaper. We're confident that's enough time to convince even a casual reader that a subscription to OSV is worth paying for.

To take advantage of the special promotion, just navigate to www.osv.com; there is an advertisement for it on our home page.

We appreciate your support. Especially in these days of economic and social uncertainty, we will do our best to serve you well with quality Catholic news and commentary.