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YAHOO: Newspaper Consortium Sees Continued Growth as Membership in Yahoo!'s Industry-Leading Partnership with Local Newspapers Climbs to 779

/noticias.info/ NEW YORK, Jun 04, 2008 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- Yahoo! Inc. (Nasdaq:YHOO) today announced that 94 more newspapers have joined its industry-leading partnership with U.S. local newspapers, bringing the total number of newspapers in the Newspaper Consortium to 779.(1) Since its launch in November 2006, the Newspaper Consortium has more than quadrupled in size, comprising 32 companies and representing 41 percent of all Sunday circulation.(2)

Yahoo!'s new partner companies in the Newspaper Consortium are: the Sun-Times News Group, with its flagship paper, the Chicago Sun-Times, and 70 newspapers in the Chicago area; the Journal Sentinel with the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel; Canada-based Black Press with the Akron Beacon Journal and the Honolulu Star-Bulletin; Stephens Media Group with 11 dailies, including the Las Vegas Review Journal; Independent Newspapers, publisher of the Delaware State News in Dover; and Yankton Media Inc., publisher of Yankton Daily Press and Dakotan.

"The Sun-Times News Group, which serves more than 200 communities in the Chicago area, reaches 4.2 million readers in print and online each week," said Rick Surkamer, chief operating officer of the Sun-Times News Group. "We have been impressed with how Yahoo! and the Newspaper Consortium have jumpstarted the newspaper industry's digital presence. Joining this transformational partnership is a solid step in reinforcing our dedication to our communities."

"We are pleased to join this innovative partnership, which is building the newspaper industry's first fully developed, integrated online advertising network," said Elizabeth (Betsy) Brenner, president and chief operating officer of Journal Communications' publishing group. "The Consortium significantly expands its members' Internet presence and is playing a critical role in the burgeoning media landscape. We are excited to be involved, as it represents a win-win situation for our advertisers and readers."

The Newspaper Consortium initially focused on providing its original 176 member newspapers with a powerful local and national recruitment network through Yahoo! HotJobs. It has since expanded to provide member newspapers with the opportunity to leverage Yahoo!'s advertising platform technology, and with the ability for the newspapers' sales force to sell Yahoo! inventory to their local clients. Member newspapers can also integrate Yahoo!'s paid search technology across their sites, and enjoy national distribution of their high-quality content across multiple Yahoo! properties and sites.

"Black Press publishes some of the oldest and most trusted community newspapers," said Glenn Rogers, chief operating officer of Black Press, New Media. "Yahoo! truly understands and values the benefit we bring to our cities' local communities and businesses, and the Newspaper Consortium enables us to stay at the forefront of what the digital age offers to us, our advertisers and our readers."

"Stephens Media has strong roots in our hometowns, and we have been expanding our Internet presence to provide our readers with news they can't get anywhere else on the Web - their hometown news," said Sherman Frederick, president and CEO of Stephens Media LLC. "We believe that, with membership in the Newspaper Consortium, we will continue to provide meaningful news to our readers while keeping an eye on the future."

The Newspaper Consortium continues to deliver strong results, through the powerful combination of partner newspapers' rich local content and strong local market relationships, with Yahoo!'s highly-engaged community of users (3), technology and deep media expertise. Among the Newspaper Consortium's achievements in the 18 months since its launch are:

-- Nearly 600 newspapers have partnered with Yahoo! HotJobs as their exclusive online recruitment solution, including major dailies in Atlanta, Dallas, Denver, Houston, Los Angeles and San Francisco.

-- Currently more than 50 newspapers are participating in a pilot program selling DMA-targeted Yahoo! inventory to local advertisers.

-- Nearly 150 newspaper sites have launched with Yahoo! search products.

-- Newspaper sites now receive more than 10 million referrals a month from the distribution of news headlines across the Yahoo! network and through its services, including the Yahoo! home page, My Yahoo! and Yahoo! Instant Messenger.

-- More than 2,500 newspaper sales representatives have participated in sales training sessions provided by Yahoo!.

"The Newspaper Consortium is expanding rapidly, both in membership and in the rollout of major initiatives, such as the ability for members to sell Yahoo! inventory to their local clients," said Lem Lloyd, vice president, Newspaper Consortium for Yahoo!, Inc. "We're now in the midst of a comprehensive sales training program designed to help the Consortium's 6,000-plus sales representatives to take advantage of the new online tools they'll soon be receiving from Yahoo!."

Later this summer, the first of Yahoo!'s newspaper partners will begin implementing the company's forthcoming advertising management platform. Called AMP! from Yahoo!, the next-generation platform is designed to provide best-of-breed ad tools to enable Newspaper Consortium members to better target ads to specific audiences, as well as more easily and efficiently package greater amounts of inventory from across the network. notas_de_prensa_archivo