Thursday, April 19, 2007

McClatchy joins with Yahoo

The publishers of more than 260 U.S. newspapers, including McClatchy Co., are hitching their online aspirations to Internet powerhouse Yahoo Inc.

The alliance announced Monday builds upon a consortium announced nearly five months ago. Since then, the alliance has recruited five more companies, including McClatchy C
o., the nation's third-largest newspaper publisher. With the latest additions, the group now spans 264 newspapers in 44 states.,

The newspapers also will funnel more of their stories through Yahoo's heavily traff
icked news, finance and sports sections in an effort to lure more readers to their Web sites.

The financial terms and the length of the newspaper consortium's contract with Yahoo weren't disclosed. In a Monday conference call, newspaper executives predicted Yahoo will help their companies recoup some of their recent losses to the Internet. Without providing specifics, the newspaper executives indicated the anticipated revenue gains from the Yahoo partnership would become evident next year.

The amount spent on the Internet by local advertisers, a major source of newspaper revenue, is expected to total $12.4 billion in 2010, up from $3.4 billion last year.

Meanwhile, advertisers aren't spending as much on print. That trend became even more apparent last year when overall print advertising at newspapers fell 1.7 percent while online advertising increased 31.5 percent, according to the Newspaper Association of America, an industry group. Total newspaper revenue dipped by 0.3 percent.

[Source: Associated Press]

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