News-Record.com

As an indirect footnote to the premature Philadelphia Inquirer hubbub, we don't see much evidence that newspaper readers move to the Web or Web users move to the paper.

Today's example: We published the Edwards story across the top of the front page of the newspaper. (It had been the lead story on the Web site since mid-afternoon Friday.) Included on the front page was a prominent promo encouraging readers to visit a forum on the topic to voice their opinions. So far this morning, only one person has left a comment, and there's no indication he did so after reading the story in the newspaper.

OK, it's Saturday morning and most people, unlike me, have a life so perhaps they haven't had the time to comment yet. Or perhaps they don't care about the topic enough to comment, which is hard to believe, given a dinner party discussion I heard last night.

But this level of response isn't unusual. When we promote specific online content in the newspaper, we don't normally see a huge increase in traffic to the Web site.

Some of it is educational, letting folks know what we have and how to find it. It's still early for some to truly understand how helpful and dynamic the Web is. Some of it is that we're promoting content that is either of marginal interest or narrowly focused interest.

But most of it, I think, is that the audiences for each form are different and simply gravitating to what they know and prefer.