Source: washingtonpost.com

Yahoo reached a deal with seven major newspaper groups representing more than a 150 newspapers that would allow them to sell help-wanted advertising and offer a variety of local information services on Yahoo’s HotJobs online classified service.

The newspapers will have the right to sell ads on Yahoo HotJobs on their own or as part of a bundle with newspaper ads. It also allows the newspapers to sell employers access to HotJobs’s résumé database. The newspaper companies also are discussing a broad range of partnerships with Yahoo that could include content sharing and search technology. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

The move is an attempt by Yahoo to expand its reach into local markets, viewed as a key growth prospect as it battles rivals such as Google Inc. for advertising dollars.

For publishers, it is a bid to expand their audience and advertising revenue as more readers drop the print editions of their papers in favor of getting their news and classified ads from the Internet.

The publishers include Belo Corp., Cox Newspapers Inc., Hearst Newspapers, Journal Register Co., Lee Enterprises Inc., MediaNews Group and E.W. Scripps Co..

Their newspapers circulate in 38 U.S. states, and include major metropolitan dailies such as the San Francisco Chronicle, the Dallas Morning News and the Los Angeles Daily News.

"We believe the local segment is largely untapped and provides significant opportunities to expand audience engagement and subsequently grow local advertising," Yahoo Chief Executive Terry Semel said in a statement.

Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

In a key element, advertisers who list jobs in the papers will also be able to post them on Yahoo’s HotJobs Web site, potentially widening the appeal of print help-wanted ads, which have lost ground in recent years to online recruiting sites.

That arrangement grew out of an existing deal between HotJobs, MediaNews and Belo.

The papers also will use Yahoo’s technology to sell ads on their Web sites, and offer search functions, local listings, maps and event calendars. Newspaper articles will also be distributed across Yahoo’s news and other sites.

The job ads will begin running in December. The companies plan to release more details about search and other technology next year.

"The bottom line is that these newspaper companies have decided to answer the ‘friend or foe’ question that all traditional media companies face regarding online players," UBS analyst Brian Schachter wrote in an investor note. "They have decided it is better to be friends with Yahoo."

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