Des Moines appreciates editorial page strengths.

Responses from Opinion Pool focus groups in Des Moines underscored that people in different markets have different preferences regarding where they go to learn about other people's opinions and offer their own.

Several themes echoed those from the other markets, to be sure: Des Moines participants reported getting news and opinion from an amazing plethora of places, each group listing thirty or forty newspapers, magazines, TV and radio stations, media Web sites, bloggers, Google searches, Wikipedia, and on and on. If people do find their way to a newspaper's opinion offerings on the Web, it's often through a search engine. And participants' definitions of opinion were broad, including reader-submitted movie, shopping, and restaurant views.

But in general, Des Moines participants appeared less likely to be heavy Web users overall than those in the other markets, particularly Seattle, and less likely to seek out opinion on the Web. One reason, especially among the thirty-something groups, was that many read the Des Moines Register's print editorial pages, and there's not currently a lot of additional staff-generated opinion content online. While many participants read various blogs and comments on Web sites, only a few had ever commented themselves.

Among other highlights, participants:

* Were deeply conflicted over the value of non-moderated reader comments. Some of the younger women said they liked scanning reader comments. But in every group, participants expressed reservations about comments from anonymous posters that were "junk;' written for "shock value" or contained personal attacks. One participant called non-moderated comments a forum for hate speech.

* Wanted options for response beyond adding comments, such as the ability to click "recommended" for posts or writers.

* Liked blogs for the broad spectrum of views presented and their more free-wheeling style. But for the most part, participants also wanted the bloggers to have recognized expertise in their subject matter.

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Several participants praised local talk-radio stations for offering an opinion forum, and several favored a local TV station's Web site for news, but the consensus was that no Web site does a stellar job with opinion on local issues. That might offer opportunity for a dynamic opinion site created by newspaper editorialists. The rub is that participants did not voice a crying need for such a site, either.

When asked to design an opinion site, participants wanted easy-to-follow navigation, attractive design, helpful links, and an efficient search function that helped them find what they wanted quickly. They also wanted expert opinions from multiple perspectives. And if they were to contribute comments themselves, they wanted to think it could make a difference--that comments on city or state issues would be seen by council members, legislators, or other policymakers, for example.

Those serious-minded responses--asking for expert opinions and wanting to make a difference on local issues--give rise to optimism about continued demand in the online world for the skills and talents of editorialists.

Carol Hunter is editorial page editor at The Des Moines Register. Email: chuntert@ desmoine.gannett.com