Local Onliner blogger Peter Krasilovsky wrote a very thorough, interesting and useful white paper for the Newspaper Association of America. The report focuses on how the e-commerce landscape is changing and what those changes mean for newspapers. Krasilovsky offers analysis on where newspapers' strenghths and weaknesses are in online shopping, and how newspapers can best position themselves in the online shopping arena.

Here's a preview -- three of the key findings from the report.

• While online shopping quite literally means “transactions” and “fulfi llment” to some people, “research” and “lead generation” have emerged as an equally important part of the online shopping equation.
  
• Newspapers are in the top rank, along with TV, among those consumers who search online for local shopping information before visiting local stores. But they rank at the bottom in the perception of them as online shopping media sources.
  
• With online shopping, newspapers have begun to think beyond the “price and item” mentality of sales advertising. They are considering other opportunities to reinforce existing advertiser relationships and attract the 85 percent of retailers that do not advertise in newspapers today.

For more key findings, check out the Local Onliner blog. And for much, much more detail, see the report.

(You'll need a Digital Media (or other) Federation identification number to access the report. If you're not a member of one of NAA's federations, access to reports like these are a really good reason to join. If you are a member (thank you!) but can't find or don't have your number, call (800) 565-4622 or e-mail me at beth.lawton@naa.org.)