• Advertising Age, Friday, May 22, 2009 9:46 AM

Newspapers are reporting success chasing local online advertising with technology and ad inventory from Yahoo. The Yahoo newspaper consortium has reportedly sold nearly $50 million in Yahoo inventory so far, with sales running several million dollars a week.

About 150 papers started using the new Yahoo platform last fall. Another 350 have signed up since. At Scripps newspapers, the new platform was largely responsible for a 30% increase in online-only ad sales in the first quarter, say company execs. The Yahoo partnership helped the Atlanta Journal Constitution line up fast-food and telecom accounts previously devoted to broadcast and outdoor, according to the paper.

"Yahoo right now is our largest strategic partner on the sales side and I don't see that changing anytime soon," says Stephen Weis, general manager at the Houston Chronicle. "[With them] we've got the largest sales force on the street in most markets. They've got an incredible scale audience."

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