PressEthic

In era when newspapers are rapidly losing their readers and advertisers to online news sites, a new deal with Yahoo may be the answer to their prayers. According to an article in Editor and Publisher:

“Yahoo Inc. will work with seven newspaper groups to share online advertising in a deal that could help newspapers tap into the lucrative online ad market. A total of 176 newspapers in 38 states will participate in the deal, reported Sunday on the Web sites of The New York Times and some of the newspapers involved.”

This comes at a good time for many of America’s large newspapers. Traditionally newspapers have subsisted on advertising revenues. Since readers are moving to the web for their news, advertising dollars are moving with them. Staff cutbacks and hiring freezes are a result. A cut of online profits may allow newspapers to not only hang on, but to grow as well.

“The groups that have signed on include Cox Newspapers Inc., Belo Corp., Hearst Corp., the E.W. Scripps Co., MediaNews Group Inc., Lee Enterprises and the Journal Register Co. The partnership will start in December with Yahoo's HotJobs service and move to other types of online advertising.”

“Among the newspapers that will participate are the Atlanta Journal-Constitution; the San Jose Mercury News; The Dallas Morning News and the Austin American-Statesman.”

In addition, online giant Google is getting involved in another mutually advantageous deal.

“Earlier this month Google Inc. announced plans to sell advertising space in 50 top newspapers, giving papers a new potential revenue source, offering online advertisers a new way to show off their products in print and helping Google expand its reach.”

These deals are steps in the right direction. They instill hope that the newspaper industry is prepared to look outside the box for advertising dollars and adapt with the changing news industry. Instead of simply subsisting, there is enormous potential for online growth. This means that maybe when I graduate, instead of encountering yet another hiring freeze, somewhere a newspaper will even be able to afford to offer me a job.

"Most local newspapers have done a pretty good job of generating local revenue into (their) sites," said Leon Levitt, vice president for digital media for Cox Newspapers. "It's so much harder to generate national revenue because a lot of advertisers don't want to deal with 100 different newspapers. This will make it simple."