A dozen of the nation’s largest newspaper publishers on Monday revealed new details about a partnership with Yahoo Inc., stoking optimism in an industry trying to find its legs in an increasingly digital age.
The consortium of newspaper publishers, which includes Denver-based ap and 11 other newspaper companies, covers 264 newspapers across 44 states. The participating papers count more than 50 million unique online visitors per month.
MediaNews is the nation’s fourth-largest newspaper publisher and owner of The Denver Post. William Dean Singleton, MediaNews’ vice chairman and chief executive, said the consortium has gained “very much momentum.”
“We think it (the deal) will play a major role in taking the industry into the new world of online,” Singleton said. “This is the first time in our history we have an industry platform to sell and consolidate online advertising.”
The deal, first announced in November, has grown beyond its initial scope of allowing help-wanted advertising to be listed jointly by the newspapers and on Yahoo’s HotJobs service.
Yahoo and the newspaper companies have agreed to develop a common online platform that will enable national companies to purchase online advertising across dozens of newspaper websites.
This would allow large advertisers such as car companies or cellphone carriers to more efficiently make advertising purchases through a “one buy, one bill” format.
The partnering newspapers’ websites will also feature a Yahoo-branded search function and toolbar, giving the newspaper companies a slice of the booming paid-search industry.
The deal also will allow newspaper stories to appear on Yahoo’s website. The news, finance and sports stories will link back to the newspapers’ websites.
The planned initiatives, which also include news updates sent to mobile phones, will be rolled out by the newspapers and Yahoo during the next 18 months.
“This is the first inning in a many-inning game,” said Susan Decker, head of Yahoo’s Advertiser and Publisher Group and the company’s acting chief financial officer.
The companies involved say the deal will open up new streams of revenue for both sides through a slew of revenue- sharing initiatives.
Financial details, including how the revenue will be divided and the length of the contract, were not disclosed. The newspapers and Yahoo described the partnership as “long-term.”
Thomas Russo, a partner with investment-advisory firm Gardner, Russo & Gardner in Lancaster, Pa., said the deal could serve as a precursor for a platform to sell national advertising in the newspapers’ print editions.
“The newspapers are getting an extraordinary amount of power in exchange for their local sales forces and content,” said Russo.
Shares of Yahoo, based in Sunnyvale, Calif., rose 20 cents, or less than 1 percent, to $31.61. Shares of most of the publicly traded newspaper companies involved ended Monday up slightly.
The deal with Yahoo comes at a critical time for the newspaper industry, which has seen advertising revenue decline as readers migrate to the Internet and other media for news and entertainment.
The Newspaper Association of America last month reported that overall print advertising at newspapers fell 1.7 percent in 2006 and that total revenue fell 0.3 percent. Online advertising surged by 31.5 percent.
The consortium also announced that the number of newspaper companies involved in the deal had grown from seven to 12 with the addition of Calkins Media, McClatchy Co., Media General, Morris Communications and Paddock Publications.
Absent from the consortium are Gannett Co. and Tribune Co., the nation’s two largest newspaper publishers. Both are working on a separate partnership that includes an online advertising platform. They’re also large stakeholders in CareerBuilder, a help-wanted website that competes with Yahoo’s HotJobs.
Staff writer Will Shanley can be reached at 303-954-1260 or wshanley@denverpost.com.
