The Yahoo corporate building is seen in an undated file photo. Yahoo Inc. said on Monday it has agreed to have at least seven newspaper groups use its technology to sell advertising on their Internet sites. REUTERS/HandoutMon Nov 20, 2006. NEW YORK (Reuters) - Yahoo Inc. said on Monday that it struck a deal with the publishers of 176 U.S. newspapers to let them use its technology to sell help-wanted advertising and offer a variety of local information services.
The move is an attempt by Yahoo to expand its reach into local markets, viewed as a key growth prospect as it battles rivals such as Google Inc. for advertising dollars.
For publishers, it is a bid to expand their audience and advertising revenue as more readers drop the print editions of their papers in favor of getting their news and classified ads from the Internet.
The publishers include Belo Corp., Cox Newspapers Inc., Hearst Newspapers, Journal Register Co., Lee Enterprises Inc., MediaNews Group and E.W. Scripps Co..
Their newspapers circulate in 38 U.S. states, and include major metropolitan dailies such as the San Francisco Chronicle, the Dallas Morning News and the Los Angeles Daily News.
"We believe the local segment is largely untapped and provides significant opportunities to expand audience engagement and subsequently grow local advertising," Yahoo Chief Executive Terry Semel said in a statement. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
In a key element, advertisers who list jobs in the papers will also be able to post them on Yahoo's HotJobs Web site, potentially widening the appeal of print help-wanted ads, which have lost ground in recent years to online recruiting sites. Continued...
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