Proving they can spread their peanut butter and eat it too, Yahoo has sealed a major alliance with the nation’s newspapers which include 176 daily publications under the houses of MediaNews Group, Hearst, Belo, E. W. Scripps, the Journal Register Company, Lee Enterprises and Cox Enterprises.
During the first phase of the partnership, newspaper companies will begin posting employment classified ads within Yahoo Hotjobs.
The New York Times states that the main goal of the partnership is the optimization and inclusion of local news stories within the Yahoo News empire, the most popular news service online:
But the long-term goal of the alliance with Yahoo, according to one senior executive at a participating newspaper company, is to be able to have the content of these newspapers tagged and optimized for searching and indexing by Yahoo.
In that way, local news – one of the pillars of the newspaper business – would become part of a large information network that would increase usefulness for readers and value to advertisers.
With AOL News, Google News, and Topix.net building their own powerful and popular local & personalized news services, this latest deal from Yahoo’s new media and the traditional newspapers will not only fortify Yahoo’s position, but also bring interactivity and user generated content to the local news; something Topix.net has carved their own niche with.
More from the NYT :
During the next year, the partnership will be extended as newspapers begin displaying their news articles and local ads on Yahoo’s online network.
Yahoo, in turn, will make available local event listings, maps, search technology and other content and tools on the newspapers’ Web sites. Yahoo will also use its technology to help newspaper sell online ads.
