If anything can save the foundering newspaper industry, it’s bound to be digital advertising, but publishers continue to struggle with the big questions: who will work with whom and how?
Well, if its success in partnering with paper publishers is any indication, the winds are swaying in Yahoo’s direction. The company just signed the New York Daily News to its roster of paper site partners. It’s the largest newspaper to join the growing consortium, now up to 21 publishers. While Yahoo first is integrating its HotJobs recruitment listings with the local listings seen on its partners’ sites, the eventual goal is for Yahoo to sell and manage the national ads running on their sites.
Even some of Yahoo’s current partners are keeping options open. Gannett and Tribune reportedly have been in talks with some newspaper publishers already in bed with Yahoo — Hearst Corp., Media News Group and Cox Newspapers — in the hopes of getting an ad network, which seems to be stuck in neutral, off and running.