What Engages Users
Northwestern’s Kellogg business school of media management, at the behest of the Online Publishers Association, today released the details of a study on what makes users do what they do on the Internet — why they use it, why they like or dislike what they like or dislike. It’s fairly obvious in many cases — this is really social science, after all — but at the same time, it’s great fodder for editorial and publishing types to get their salespeople on board with the idea that content has real value and needs to have primacy when positioning an ad sale. “Entertains and Absorbs Me” was the number one reason people go to Web media, the study says. Interesting tidbit: Users of national news Web sites rated their Web experience under this category lower than other groups (see page 8 of 271 in the PDF document).