Charles Matthews said:
I would like to propose some different questions. The present discussion, phrased in generalities, is just going round and round.
This sounds like a reasonable approach.
Q1: What is WP's demographic?
A marketing question, if you like. We know that the job is to get the encyclopedia written. My answer, FWIW, is that it is the Sopranos/Sex in the City stratum. (Neither of these are to my taste, by the way.) That's our natural station.
I only have a broad idea of what The Sopranos might be about (a comic drama about family of thugs and gangsters?) and I have a vague idea that Sex in the City might have been some kind of heterosexual equivalent of Queer as Folk. Would it be fair to say they're more likely to be fans of The Office than The Archers, or is that completely off your point?