• San Francisco Chronicle, Thursday, April 19, 2007 11 AM

Yahoo CEO Terry Semel on Tuesday was bullish about the prospects for the Web giant's new partnership with a consortium of newspaper companies to sell online advertising through a joint network. He said the initiative was an unparalleled solution for local and national advertisers.

The addition of McClatchy earlier this week brings the total number of nationwide dailies to 260 that will sell ads using Yahoo's ad targeting technology. Publishers and industry critics agree that the move is a boon, but it's no panacea for the ailing print business. A combined sales force with established relationships with local advertisers should attract more ad dollars.

Lincoln Millstein, senior vice president for Hearst Newspapers, which publishes the San Francisco Chronicle, said Yahoo and the newspaper holding companies are selling together, because they can't attract the potential billions in local online advertising alone.

Critic Alan Mutter, a former Chronicle editor turned blogger, said the revenue-sharing alliance with Yahoo is a "revenue shot-in-the-arm" at best. He titled his blog posting "Newsosaur." Wes Jackson, president of the interactive division of Belo Corp., one of the newspaper partners that put the deal together, has hope for the deal, but says it's not necessarily "a savior play for the newspaper industry."

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