We have some late-breaking election results.

Actually, these are scientific poll numbers.

We toil away in the lower level of the Burien Elks building and don’t always know how the Highline Times is viewed out there in the wider world.

Lucky for us, the city of Burien hires a professional pollster to survey Burien residents every two years to assess how restless the natives are about the quality of life in Burien and services provided.

Four hundred scientifically selected residents are surveyed by phone. The 2012 survey showed Burien residents are generally happy, but not quite as happy as before the great recession and divisive election campaigns.

But the question we were particularly interested in concerned residents’ information source for news about Burien.

Overwhelmingly, Burien residents told the surveyors they get their news from the local newspaper/Highline Times. Thirty-one percent named us, your local community newspaper, as their information source.

Of course, that wasn’t as good as when we were the only game in town. But we were heartened that, despite the added competition, we’re up 2 percent from 2010.

The Burien city newsletter followed us at 25 percent.

Friends/colleagues, flyers/signs/billboards and direct mail tied at 18 percent. Email/internet came in at 16 percent.

Down in seventh place were blogs at 10 percent— more than 20 points below us. There’s several local blogs out there that divide up that 10 percent, including our own website at www.highlinetimes.com.

Our website is a way for us to get news articles to you quicker than in a weekly paper. We can also provide more information than all the news that fits into the print paper.

When we print a press release on the website, we carefully label it so you can decide how many grains of salt you want to take it with.

We love our advertisers so we are careful to keep news and advertising separate. That way our advertisers know their message is appearing in a source that is viewed as credible.

Besides knowing we reach a lot of people, we are thankful hearing from individuals who say we are making a difference in our communities.

A great example is the letter praising Ty Swenson’s reporting for our sister Robinson publication, the West Seattle Herald/White Center News:

“There is simply no substitute for a local weekly newspaper, period! Your Robinson West Seattle Herald helped save the Schmitz Park School site for future generations of children in West Seattle. We simply could not have done it without you. Thank you. Vicki Schmitz Block, Dietrich Schmitz.”

There are a lot of people who will tell you where they think you should advertise your business, publicize your community event, comment on the news or leave a news tip.

We are not very good at tooting our own horn. However, we thought you should know what a scientific survey discovered about where people get their news around here.