NNA members can now poll their readers and automatically break down the results by age, gender, and geographic location

Aug 14, 2020

Polco is here to help newspapers better engage their readers and provide NNA members with enhanced data and insights on each member’s particular market. The service comes at no cost to members, and the platform is simple to use.

Media outlets on the platform have seen success engaging readership by embedding news-related questions on their websites. The responses ⁠— often from 1,000+ respondents overnight ⁠— have helped them learn more about who their readers are what they are most interested in.

By posting repostable benchmarked content, members will receive the following:

  • Demographic & geographic breakdowns, participation rates & sentiment on standardized questions.
  • Ability to pull their own filtered reports as-needed.
  • Ability to embed each question via CMS to their newspaper’s webpager

It is recommended that each question’s widget is placed in a prominent place where users can clearly see and easily engage content. This includes embedding the widget within relevant articles, displaying the widget on your front page, and/or sharing a link on social media. Robust results will rely on broadcasting Polco content via multiple channels, and having many NNA members actively participate.

Readers can be sure that their personal data will never be shared or sold, nor will anyone ever be able to see their individual-level data or responses after they are verified. Our privacy policy can be found here.  The intent is not only to provide the NNA with comprehensive and insightful data along with its members, but to provide civic engagement to newspaper readers as a whole.

Polco was created after its two founders left Amazon and Google, intent to build software that would improve civic engagement around the country. Having both previously served in the Air Force and having taught at the Air Force Academy, Polco was born from strong technical experiences and academic credentials into a platform used in over 23 states.