Thanks for taking our survey – your feedback matters

A couple times each year LebTown runs a general reader survey.

These structured surveys help us benchmark our readership and explore ways to improve.

Overall our readership continues to grow – LebTown.com has been visited more than 2.6 million times this year, up 16% from the same time last year. We have approximately 1,150 members from an email list of about 9,250.

We like to think of our members as Lebanon County’s MVP’s – the top 10% of engaged citizens. LebTown exists thanks to the support of our members and advertisers, and we’re deeply grateful to have this community of local news champions behind our efforts.

As with previous years, the overwhelming message from survey responses was: Keep it up! We received over 200 survey responses and our Net Promoter Score was 65, up from 54 last year. (Net Promoter Score is a metric used to quantify supporters and detractors.)

Above all else, readers want to see us continue to grow and remain neutral politically. LebTown’s identity is firmly rooted in being nonpartisan and independent. Of the LebTown readers who shared their political leanings, moderates made up the largest single faction.

There are some specific areas for growth, which I’ll explain further below, but first I want to address a few general requests and questions that came up.

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Why don’t you publish names in the blotter?

We do publish names in the blotter, so long as they are provided in news releases from police, with one big caveat. LebTown has had a Right to Be Forgotten policy since 2018, the year we began publishing.

We do not publish names for traffic accidents or summary offenses except in certain circumstances such as a fatal crash or public figure.

In cases where a name has been published, we will remove the name from published blotters if the identified person is able to demonstrate that charges were withdrawn or an expungement or sealing was granted.

This policy has served us well over the past eight years, and we believe it strikes the appropriate balance between the public’s right to know and an individual’s right for certain actions to be forgotten.

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Why don’t you publish every day? And can you go back to a daily email newsletter?

We do publish every weekday on LebTown.com.

Our weekly email newsletter is an extremely popular way to read LebTown, but we also have thousands of people who visit our homepage each day. You can even add LebTown as a home screen shortcut to your iOS or Android device by installing it as a Progressive Web App (PWA). If you feel like you’re missing out on LebTown stories, try the homepage.

LebTown members also have the option of receiving a daily version of our email newsletter. For just $4.99/month or $49.99/year, you can become a LebTown member and get exclusive perks like the daily email newsletter. (You can become a member here.)

In the future, we may expand our email newsletter offerings. If you aren’t on the list yet, you can sign up for LebTown’s free email newsletter here.

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Can you publish obituaries more often?

Each Monday, we publish an article with the most recent obituaries submitted to LebTown.

We have ongoing partnerships with six funeral homes across the county, and also receive obituaries directly from other funeral homes and families. We treat our obituaries section as a community service and only charge enough to cover our costs.

Even though we only publish an obituaries article once a week, we publish the individual obituaries as quickly as we’re able. You can always see the most recent obituaries we’ve published on LebTown’s obituaries page.

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How can I submit a coverage suggestion?

We accept coverage suggestions and news tips through a form on our website and also through our newsroom email address, news@lebtown.com. Although we cannot guarantee coverage, we do our best to acknowledge emails, and our goal is always to cover as much as possible.

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Will you keep publishing historical stories?

Absolutely – we have a list of historical story ideas that’s quite long, and we’re always on the hunt for writers with an interest in history to help us tackle this backlog.

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Can you add a letter to the editors section?

We actually have one already! The number of submissions we receive tends to ebb and flow, but we’re always glad to see submissions from locals with ideas to share with the greater Lebanon Valley. That said, we do have stringent submission guidelines that we use to screen op-eds and letters.

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Have you thought about creating a community calendar?

Yes, it’s something we’ve thought about a lot! And we did it!

Our Lebanon County Events Calendar is designed as a one-stop shop for everything happening in Lebanon County. It’s free to submit events and we hand pick a selection each week to feature on our social media accounts and in our weekend events roundup.

As a parent myself, I rely on our calendar to find things to do with my toddler son each weekend. I guess what I’m saying – I’m not only the LebTown publisher, I’m also a reader!

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There have been many lessons for me as publisher, and more than a few counter-intuitive ones. A great example – the bigger LebTown gets, the more there is to cover!

We’ll need your help to do it, but here are the areas our readers flagged for additional coverage.

• High school sports and school district activities.
• Faith-related news.
• Restaurant news and recipes.
• Candidate profiles/voter guides.
• Small business stories.
• “Teach me” stories about different municipalities.
• Hunting/fishing.

We also hear you loud and clear about the mega-trends that are most important for us to continue covering.

There’s clearly deep concern and anxiety as more and more of Lebanon County gets targeted for commercial, industrial, and residential development.

There are many complex issues at play, and the situation is even more fraught given the hyperlocal nature of zoning and planning in Pennsylvania.

At the individual level these issues make us confront sometimes awkward little ironies.

The person living in a 30-year-old development built on former farmland who opposes the new development proposed for the field behind them. The farmer saying that a solar installation is their best shot at maintaining an agricultural lifestyle for their family. The data center opposition mobilized on platforms run by big tech.

Don’t read into this as me being pro- or anti-development; like most of you I would reject either label, maybe offering the milquetoast position of being for “smart development.” But what does that mean? Even as the county completes its own comprehensive plan, we know that’s not a Bible. We can’t shy away from the complexity. Ultimately if Lebanon County hopes to avoid the fate of King Canuet and see this development surge funneled in a way that preserves the agrarian roots of Lebanon County we love, it’ll take an extraordinary coming-together. Just possibly independent, fact-based reporting can help achieve that.

As a recent example, I found the debate around the South Annville Township data center to be incredibly fascinating. I hope you agreed that our coverage was timely, in-depth, and holistic.

As we close the books on our first 2026 survey, our mission is clear: LebTown needs to provide the unbiased, fact-based information that helps Lebanon Countians form their own opinions. And above all else – Keep it local!