In an announcement today, seven news corporations will form a partnership with Yahoo that will include sharing advertising content.
The companies involved with the deal include the Hearst Corp.; MediaNews Group; Belo Corp.; E.W. Scripps Co.; Journal Register Co.; Lee Enterprises; and Cox Enterprises have joined with Yahoo to offer local news and advertising on Yahoo.
One of the main goals of the deal is to make media (advertising) buys for local advertisers more effective. As a first step, the 176 newspapers involved in the deal will power their local employment listings with Hot Jobs, Yahoo’s job search engine, which will strengthen it as a valuable resource for those seeking jobs across the country.
In a second phase, more advertising will be shared, including real estate and other classified advertising. Finally, content will be shared with Yahoo to beef up its news offering and to lead readers back to the papers who provide it.
I believe that newspapers are wise to join forces to aggregate their content. The news portals, such as Google and Yahoo, will become places for people to get a holistic view of the news and to find information. By making the jump now, the newspapers are showing that they understand the dynamic of people gathering their news online will only expand. I wouldn’t count out the power of mainstream media and their ability to adapt.
Some of the details used in this post were taken from the Houston Chronicle version of the story
Photo by SF buckaroo
