(Limor Peer)

And, do you want it to be? I suspect that even though the answer to the first question may be "no," your answer to the second is "yes."

RI data on newspapers' Web site usage show that only about a third of the people in a given market read the local newspaper online. Why is it that many don't see newspapers' Web sites as a destination for news? Or, as Allan Mutter put it (almost two years ago):

Here's the conundrum: If people, even young people, are interested in the news; AND, if people, especially young people, like getting it on the Internet; AND, if newspapers are nothing if they are not sources of news, THEN, why don't more people go to newspaper websites?

I'll get to a possible answer later. But let's talk about how people do access news online.

I recently had occasion to look again at a Pew report from 2004 on online news audiences. There, on page 22 of the 106 page report, is a little table and three short paragraphs that caught my attention. The section is titled "Inadvertent news consumers" and opens thus:

It has become increasingly common for Internet users to come across news inadvertently while online for other purposes. Fully 73% of Internet users come across the news this way, up from 65% two years ago, and 55% as recently as 1999.

According to this report, this is even more common for younger people.

Moreover, for some of those who are actively looking for news, the starting point is a search engine. From there, it makes little difference to them what site they end up on once they link to a story. The way they see it, they get the news on Google or Comcast.

In informal talks with newspaper Web site editors we learned that they know many of the stories that are most viewed on their sites come from search engine links. Accordingly, news organizations are becoming increasingly savvy about writing headlines that will turn up on particular search queries. Many invest in software that promises search engine optimization. Programs like Omniture's SiteCatalyst are widely used to track online traffic and help optimize the amount of content that a search will produce.

But search engine optimization is but one strategy. If you put all your eggs in the search optimization basket, you are communicating to the world that you are no more than a content database. If, on the other hand, you work to make your site a destination -- an online space that people want to visit repeatedly -- you can be more than the sum of your (content) parts.

Of course, it doesn't have to be a zero-sum game -- you could develop your site and market it as a "go to" place on the Web while all the while working to also optimize the amount of your content that a search will produce. Working out the right balance may not be easy. Starbuck's is an example of a company that figured that out quite well, establishing itself as the "third place" while at the same time distributing its coffee to almost every supermarket.

But you have to ask yourself: What is the best strategy in the long run?

One key way to judge that is to ask yourself: Which strategy will lead to more engaged users? Users who plan and want to go to your site, users for whom your site is a destination. Think of ESPN as a destination for comprehensive news about sports, OnlineWSJ as a destination for news about finance and the economy or craigslist as a destination for free exchange of information. The 2007 State of the Media report referred to NPR, a growing medium, as "something of an identity unto itself, a destination." Or, from the TV world, the Daily Show as a destination for political and news satire or Keith Olbermann's show on MSNBC as a destination for sharp political critique.

What these particular media have in common is a strong, clear concept that plays to certain experiences the audience is seeking (such as, to feel connected to others, to sense that the site looks out for their interest, to be surprised, to talk to others about it). For the audience, these experiences are conduits -- or different ways to connect with -- the site, or program, or newspaper. When these experiences are strong with a given medium, it becomes a destination. This idea is explained in greater detail on this site and in Northwestern's Kellogg School of Management Professor Bob Calder's book.

We all intuitively understand that it would be good for a Web site to be a destination, but there are some open questions:

1. Wouldn't it be going against the tide? In a piece titled "Is Destination dead?" from November 2005, Dorian Benkoil argued that content is becoming so dis-aggregated, thanks to syndication technologies, that people may be getting your content without ever going to your site. However, as I said before, it doesn't have to be "either / or" -- flowing with the tide and thinking up ways to turn your site into a destination are not necessarily contradictory. Besides, we shouldn't let technology determine our strategy... just because search engines monopolize the online space, doesn't mean we can't call any shots!
   


2. Aren't newspaper Web sites already a destination for local news? According a 2004 study by the Newspaper Association of America, local newspaper sites are a premier local news destination and the audience for newspaper sites keeps growing. Yet, as I mentioned above, RI research shows that less than a third of the people in a given market have ever used their local newspaper's Web site. And the 2007 State of the Media report shows that usage of news online has flattened out, leading us to think that there is a lot of untapped potential here.
   


3. And most important: How do you turn a site into a destination? As we have said many times in this space, it would take a revolution, not evolution. Some media companies are clearly articulating a "destination strategy," such as Condé Nast, which is taking steps to turn some of its sites into destinations, and finding some success. Non-traditional players are also setting up sites with strong concepts in an attempt to make them online destinations. One example, Backfence, described on MarketingShift as "seeking to be a kind of ultimate local destination, combining local news, classifieds, community input, local business reviews, Yellow Pages, an entertainment and events calendar and a good deal more," got off to a promising start, but is recently having some problems.

Are you having these conversations with your staff? In what ways are you attempting to be a destination Web site for your users?


By Limor Peer (l-peer@northwestern.edu)
Limor Peer is research director for the Media Management Center and Readership Institute.