That is part of the headline from USA Today’s article on Seattle claiming the top spot as America’s most literate city for the second year in a row.
USA Today presenting an article on literacy and using the word ‘wiz’ in the title really opens the door for some fun but we will leave that for another time.
Here are some highlights:
Seattle’s remains #1 overall in the Bookstore category which uses the following three variables-
1. Number of retail bookstores per 10,000 population
2. Number of rare and used bookstores per 10,000 population
3. Number of members of the American Booksellers Association per 10,000 population
We are also number one in the Education Level category
The other good news is that the most literate cities tend to be the most liberal.
Here are some lowlights:
We had a 12% drop in newspaper circulation.
Seattle ranks 17th in online news consumption, though that is the highest rank for any city with a drop of more than 10% in newspaper circulation, it is still a disappointing rank. You would think we would place higher here.
We rank 7th in the Library Support, Holdings, and Utilization category- I trust this will change as we complete our overhaul of our library system thanks to the Libraries for All initiative
Oh and last year when we won the USA Today’s headline was Seattle Reaches Literacy Peak with an image of the Space Needle used in the article. Now that is some original reporting.
Here is the link to the official report.