Friday, November 24, 2006

Newspaper companies say 'Yahoo!' for online ad deal Disclaimer: this item leaves unanswered questions What's so special about the number 176? Who is the biggest provider of "local news"? Is "biggest" good? My weekend catchup reading starts with a batch of stories about seven newspaper chains making a deal to share news, advertising and technology with Yahoo. The companies own 176 newspapers, including the News Sentinel here in Knoxville. Yikes... The story actually started to break last weekend. So much for my staying on top of things. Some sources of details and discussion: The New York Times The News Sentinel Editor & Publisher Forbes Dan Gilmor PaidContent Links and discussion at Media Giraffe The news stories tend to focus on the papers' hopes of hanging onto some of the classified advertising business by hooking up with Yahoo, which would also provide online search and ad business. The online newswatcher blog discussions are questioning the wisdom of newspapers letting Yahoo channel their local news. Yahoo already has a "local news" service in Beta using RSS feeds, but it hasn't quite gotten to Knoxville. I searched for our fair city and got this response:    To see news for Knoxville, TN, please select a metro area:    Memphis    Nashville Not much "local" to Knoxville there. The closest news sources on the list are the Middle Tennessee ones: Tennessean WKRN 2 Nashville Business Journal The Leaf Chronicle (Clarkesville) Daily News Journal (Murfreesboro) Nashville Scene (On those pages, I do like the way the Yahoo aggregator gives you a choice of browsing headlines alone or headlines with summaries. I wonder if any of them are getting advertising services in exchange for all that content.) TV Tangent: At least one of the RSS feeds Yahoo is aggregating comes from a Memphis TV station affiliated with WorldNow, one of two Web service companies heavily into "local news" from the broadcast side. WorldNow also has seen itself as competing with Yahoo in the online advertising business. Hmm. World Now says it has over 280 media partners. An affiliated site says 176 of them TV stations, including WVLT and WATE here in Knoxville. (Where else have I seen the number 176 recently? Oh yeah... my first paragraph. Weird coincidence.) The company calls itself "the leading provider of Internet technology, content and revenue solutions for local media Web sites." Meanwhile, its competition, Internet Broadcasting (formerly IBSys) calls itself "the nation's largest publisher of TV station websites" with 79 local television partners. I'll let someone else check the math and look into whatever hair-splitting definitions lurk behind the two statements. But I wonder whether either of the companies will get caught up (or already is involved) in the Google vs. Yahoo vs. Microsoft Internet news, search and services advertising business. Maybe the nice folks at PaidContent or LostRemote already have an answer. some minor editing Nov.25 11:49:04 PM    comment []

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