ionadas local LLC

Yahoo Continues Push for Local Display Ads

According to WebProNews, Yahoo has added five papers to its Newspaper Consortium. The entrants include the Orange County Register, the Gazette in Colorado Springs, the Record and Herald News, and the San Diego Union-Tribune.

The Yahoo Newspaper Consortium is made up of 814 newspapers. The papers receive access to Yahoo’s contextual advertising, paid search and web search products, as well as sales training.

While the challenges the newspaper industry faces are still imposing, at least they’re trying something different by working with Yahoo. And by working with the number two player in the online advertising industry (rather than working with industry leader Google), they likely retain a much larger share of the revenue generated.

As these offerings and relationships mature, they may turn into a highly valued channel for the local advertiser, who often had all too few ways to reach targeted prospects online.

Local Ad Dollars Move to Search

Advertising dollars for local businesses are moving from traditional vehicles such as radio, newspapers and television to online vehicles such as local search, according to an article by MediaPost. While the recession certainly accounts for a great deal of the decline of the traditional vehicles, a non-trivial portion comes from the specific weaknesses of those vehicles.

While radio, newspaper and television are powerful tools for reaching large numbers of potential customers, that reach comes at a high cost and with very little audience targeting. Search and other online marketing, however, can be targeted to a very discreet level, and generally have minimum purchases at a fraction of the amount of the traditional ad vehicles.

At ionadas local, we certainly expect to see this movement of local ad dollars online to continue.