Few newspapers ever do the kind of nitty-gritty detail surveys that really reveal what readers actually read. Oh sure, there are phone surveys and focus groups, but who’s going to admit, “Well, I always read the comics and horoscopes, never the national news”? And with so much content to cover, what survey gets into this columnist vs. columnist, this kind of music review vs. that kind of celebrity gossip? So how about borrowing a page from TV, and, in exchange for free subscriptions, get a lot of families to keep diaries about what they actually read? Shouldn’t be tough to find nonsubscribers who’d go for a freebie … and maybe turn into faithful customers down the road.