openDemocracy’s Readership and Reach

openDemocracy has over 3.5 million unique views per year (that is, over 3.5 million different computers per year access openDemocracy), with 1 million repeat visitors per year. We have 230,000 links on the web pointing to the site, and 2,300 of those coming from a “.edu” (US academic) domain. We have 650 links from Wikipedia. SEOmoz, the web-site ranking service, give openDemocracy a “visibility” score of 8.5/10, corresponding to “one of the best-known websites in your field”. There is a loyal core of about 150,000 visitors who spend significant time on the site, reading multiple articles and returning weekly.

openDemocracy has an opt-in email list of about 50,000 members who have asked to be kept informed about democracy and news by us. We send 3 editorialised emails per week and achieve a click-through rate of 15%, which is very high by email-list standards.

Survey responses show that openDemocracy’s readership is 25% from the US, 25% UK, 25% other Europe and 25% Asia, Africa, Latin America. The readership is highly educated, with 96% having a university education, and 60% a postgraduate education. The age-range is balanced between students, professionals and retirees. Occupationally, there are a large number of lawyers, accountants, civil-servants, students and media professionals. Respondents cite “Independence” and “Belief in Mission” as the reason for supporting openDemocracy.

openDemocracy aims to make an impact by changing minds, and especially the minds of opinion formers and thought leaders at all levels and in all sub-communities of society. Survey data shows that openDemocracy's readers are influential: 4% in government, 4% involved in drafting legislation, 6% professionally involved in influencing policy making, 15% involved in media commentary and 29% regularly asked for their opinion on political topics. That is a total of 60% of readers are "influencers" at some level.