Online Newspapers and Consumer Behavior

By: Newspaper new-media executives should spend more time focusing on consumer behavior and less time worrying about the latest evolution in technology, said Roger D. Blackwell, a consumer behavior expert and professor at Ohio State University.

Even after several years of developing Web sites, "newspapers still haven't figured out what the benefits of online are," Blackwell said during a recent visit to New York. "Publishers have to figure out which parts consumers want in print vs. what they want online."

It may be a given that print is a better vehicle for casual reading while online is the best vehicle for archive or classified searches, but newspaper executives don't always remember this maxim when plotting out their new-media strategies, Blackwell suggested. "We read [print] newspapers because we enjoy reading newspapers," he said. "We want ideas. We scan the newspaper. Even if I say I'm only interested in business and Ohio State sports, I will still read some Metro stories and some culture stories when I read the paper."

But when Blackwell goes online, he's typically less interested in casual scanning and more likely to be looking for something specific. "Online is really for searching, branding, and marketing." Blackwell thinks efforts to replicate online the experience of reading a print newspaper will probably fail.

He suggests that newspaper Web sites focus on interactivity with reporters and editors, supplemental in-depth information such as explaining the methodology behind surveys and offering additional statistics, and perhaps building glossaries of terms found in the print newspaper. Despite the difficulty that newspapers have had in drawing younger audiences, Blackwell said online fantasy sports and similar games can hook the next generation.

On the business side, Blackwell believes newspapers will probably need separate sales forces for print and new media, at least for the foreseeable future. "Rarely does someone who sells casualty insurance also sell life insurance," he said, using an analogy. "They're different kinds of sales."

Blackwell has been studying consumer behavior since the 1960s. His most recent book, Customers Rule: Why the e-Commerce Honeymoon Is Over, was published last year.

Ohio State's Fisher College of Business recently named a new on-campus hotel and conference center in honor of Blackwell, who with his wife Tina have given $7 million to the business school.