PressEthic

Media watchers are all aflutter with the news that Google and Yahoo have agreed to revenue-sharing deals with newspapers. It is interpreted as a sign that, although newspapers have been slow to meld with the internet, they are not completely irrelevant.

Nat Worden, on TheStreet.com, sees it as a vindication for newspapers:

The willingness on the part of Google and Yahoo! to cut revenue-sharing deals with publishers that have been written off by some investors as a dying breed is evidence that daily papers, and their expensive news-gathering operations, still provide indispensable content for their local audiences.

He explains the mutual benefits of such agreements:

The deal will allow Yahoo! to reach local audiences tied to their hometown newspapers. Meanwhile, the group of publishers will access Yahoo!'s online portals to expand their reach and grab back some precious revenue that has migrated away in recent years as more consumers turn to the Web for their information needs.

However, Rick Edmonds on Poynter sees it as a more modest development, pointing out that the advertising is focused on classifieds--specifically employment.

Classifieds aren't exactly a beacon of fine news content, but newspapers have felt the sting as job searches have shifted online. So the cooperation is symbolically important if nothing else.

Alan Mutter warns on his "Reflections of a Newsosaur" blog that newspapers may be surrendering too much power to the web in these deals.

Newspapers will win if they can share their content, local appeal and customer relationships as full-fledged partners to the online collaborators who are supplying the technology and traffic that publishers individually can't attain.

If publishers yield the leadership of the fast-evolving digital advertising market to The Online Powers That Be, they could find themselves on the wrong end of some pretty nasty monkey business.

So while this collaboration between print and online media is important, it still doesn't address the value of news content.