Yahoo, Newspapers form Major Alliance

Yahoo and a consortium of 76 newspapers nationwide have entered into a far-reaching alliance encompassing classified advertising, content, and search that signals a new level of cooperation between newspapers and their erstwhile Internet rivals.

The first phase of the deal will allow the newspapers' help wanted advertisers to post classifieds on Yahoo HotJobs, while the newspapers' online career sections will be powered by HotJobs. The job sites will be co-branded between Yahoo and local newspapers in 38 states including The San Francisco Chronicle, The Dallas Morning News, and The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Over the long term, the partnership is expected to extend to other types of advertising and content-sharing such as incorporating Yahoo search and mapping into newspapers' sites and distributing newspaper content through Yahoo search, news, and other sections of the portal.

For Yahoo, the deal provides a much-needed boost amid slowing ad revenue sales and widespread criticism that the company has missed out on key strategic opportunities to competitors such as Google and Fox Interactive Media.

Earlier this month, Google unveiled plans to sell print ads in 50 major newspapers, including publications owned by Gannett, The Tribune Company, and The New York Times Co.

For newspapers, the Yahoo alliance provides the framework for a comprehensive strategy for tackling the Web after years of losing ad market share to the Internet portals and free listings sites such as Craigslist.

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Source: MediaPost