Internet at Work (Jeff Hankins Publisher’s Note)

With three interesting pieces of national research in hand and three full years of history for our flagship Web site, now is a good time to assess some Internet trends.

One anecdotal point before jumping into hard numbers: I heard more comments than ever during this Christmas shopping season about the amount of Internet purchases that were made. When the final analysis of the fourth quarter trends is complete, I suspect we’ll hear about big gains in Internet sales and a renewed effort by state and local governments to apply sales tax to online sales.

A new study conducted by Forbes, Gartner/G2 and survey.com details the Internet habits of business executives, specifically “C-level” executives such as chief executives officers and chief financial officers. Here’s what it showed:

• 38 percent of them said the Web is their single most important source for information on business. That number climbs to 51 percent among large company executives, followed by daily newspapers at 22 percent.

• Confirming a big fear of all other media, the study shows that the Internet is resulting in C-level executives spending on average 50 percent less time with daily newspapers, television, magazines, radio and even trade publications.

• Among all business executives surveyed, 39 percent buy or sell investments online, 66 percent use online banking services and 61 percent respond to online advertising when they find something interesting.

All this presents both opportunity and challenge for Arkansas Business and arkansasbusiness.com. The launch of our revamped Web site three years ago was critical in responding to new media demand and habits. At the same time, we must keep our weekly print edition compelling as we compete for your time and media consumption, and I’m pleased to say that our print subscription renewal rate and readership levels remain strong.

Our move into daily news coverage has introduced Arkansas Business to an audience of tens of thousands who never knew us and has enhanced our relationship with existing subscribers. Last year, arkansasbusiness.com had 243,000 unique visitors who made 1.3 million visits to the site and recorded 7.5 million page impressions. We have 8,335 receiving the “Daily Report” via e-mail, and we’re sending 69,000 requested e-newsletters every week.

And, yes, it’s a profitable Internet operation.

The Wall Street Journal and eMarketer teamed to produce a study called “An Elephant in the Room: the Online At-Work Audience.” About 37 percent of the total U.S. workforce of 135.1 million regularly go online at work.

In the WSJ study, when business leaders were asked what information sources are used to gain information about their industry’s sector, 87 percent said business publications and 71 percent said Web sites — music to my ears. Daily newspapers came in at 37 percent, television 27 percent and radio 20 percent.

What do business decision-makers do online at work? They read news and current events (92 percent), read financial news and stock listings (45 percent), research business-related purchases (44 percent), purchase business-related products and services (33 percent) and research competitive companies (30 percent).

Another encouraging study, released by Nielsen/NetRatings, shows that users of online editions of print publications are more affluent, better educated and heavier users of the Internet than the average online user.

I share all this information not only as a testimonial to how the Internet continues to be a successful venture for our organization and industry, but also to remind all of us that we can’t let the failed Internet models and dot-com busts of the late ’90s lull anyone to discount Internet commerce and opportunity.

Direct commerce on the Internet will continue to escalate, and so will online research and marketing efforts that lead to relationships and spending on products and services at traditional stores.

Don’t ignore it.

(Jeff Hankins can be reached via e-mail at [email protected].)