Yahoo! Forms Strategic Partnership With Hearst And Consortium Of More Than 150 Newspapers Across The U.S.
Unique Relationship Creates Valuable Advertising Network
Plan to Integrate Search, Content, Local Tools, and Recruitment Begins with Yahoo! HotJobs
Sunnyvale, CA – November 20, 2006 - In another step towards creating the most comprehensive advertising network in the online industry, Yahoo! Inc. (Nasdaq: YHOO) today announced a strategic partnership with more than 150 daily U.S. newspapers to deliver search, graphical and classified advertising to consumers in the communities where they live and work. Beginning with recruitment advertising, the newspapers and Yahoo! HotJobs are bringing one of the largest online audiences, targeting capabilities, local expertise and advertising power to recruiters. In addition, the consortium plans to work together to provide search, content, and local applications across the newspapers’ Web sites.
Adding to Yahoo!’s list of high-quality partners across its search, graphical and classified advertising networks, such as eBay and Right Media, members of the newly formed consortium include: Belo Corp.; Cox Newspapers Inc.; Hearst Newspapers; Journal Register Company; Lee Enterprises, Incorporated; MediaNews Group; and, The E.W. Scripps Company. The newspapers in this consortium reach 38 states, and include major market dailies such as the San Francisco Chronicle, The Dallas Morning News, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Houston Chronicle, Denver Post, Rocky Mountain News, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, San Jose Mercury-News, New Haven Register and the Commercial Appeal (Memphis).
“This announcement is consistent with our strategy to establish relationships that advance Yahoo!’s objective of securing leading positions where we see the biggest prospects for growth,” said Terry Semel, chairman and chief executive officer, Yahoo! Inc. “We believe the local segment is largely untapped and provides significant opportunities to expand audience engagement and subsequently grow local advertising. With our powerful reach, content, technology, local tools and advertising capabilities, Yahoo! is uniquely positioned to seize these opportunities, especially as we continue to enhance our search monetization efforts and to extend our leadership position in graphical advertising.”
The companies have embarked upon a wide-ranging relationship unique in the newspaper industry in its combined scope. It will leverage the complementary strengths of the newspaper consortium and Yahoo! to deliver significant localized content and advertising opportunities to their customers.
Yahoo! and the consortium have initiated plans to work together in the following capacities:
Advertising: Use Yahoo!’s technology platform to sell online advertising for the newspapers’ Web sites.
Search: Use Yahoo!’s search monetization functionality on newspaper Web sites, such as Web search, downloads of the Yahoo! toolbar and sponsored search.
Local: Offer Yahoo!’s local products such as Yahoo! Local listings, Yahoo! Maps and Event Listings on the newspaper Web sites.
Content: Use Yahoo!’s extensive network to distribute the newspapers’ content in areas such as Yahoo! Search results, Yahoo! News and other content verticals.
“This is a transformational deal for the newspaper industry,” said William Dean Singleton, CEO of MediaNews Group, and Victor F. Ganzi, president & CEO of Hearst Corporation, in a joint statement. “This relationship will significantly extend our local assets to a much wider audience, and gives us the technology required to fulfill the growing demands of advertisers and consumers.” MediaNews Group and Hearst were founders of the consortium along with Belo, Lee and Scripps. The consortium continues to recruit other newspapers to join.
The local online advertising opportunity is significant. According to Bank of America, the U.S. online advertising segment is predicted to grow from an estimated $3.4 billion in 2006 to an estimated $12.4 billion by 2010. And, according to the Kelsey Group, 35 percent of all online searches are local, with volume expected to increase from more than 20 billion searches in the next year to more than 30 billion searches by 2009.
First Implementation to Create a Powerful Jobs Network The first element of the partnership to be implemented will provide advertisers who list jobs in any of the consortium’s newspapers the ability to also post their jobs on Yahoo! HotJobs (www.hotjobs.com) and throughout the Yahoo! network. Advertisers will be able to use contextual, streaming and interactive media to engage candidates and can also leverage RSS feeds, job search agents, newsletters and job recommendation engine results. The arrangement will create a powerful local and national jobs network and product suite, enabling recruitment advertisers to reach a larger, more diverse candidate pool of both active and passive job seekers.
In addition, all of the newspapers’ online career sections will be powered by Yahoo! HotJobs and co-branded between Yahoo! and the local newspaper. Belo Corp. and MediaNews Group, two of the newspaper companies included in this consortium, have been Yahoo! HotJobs partners since 2005.
“We believe that this arrangement is a potential game changer for Yahoo! HotJobs, providing an enormous database of additional job listings and giving local newspapers a dramatically larger audience,” said Hilary Schneider, senior vice president of marketplaces for Yahoo!.
“This partnership will give recruiters exactly what they need to find the best candidates, combining Yahoo!’s extensive job seeker reach and world-class targeting technologies with the newspapers’ local strength and readership, making us a leader in most of these territories,” said Dan Finnigan, senior vice president for Yahoo! HotJobs.
About Yahoo! Yahoo! Inc. is a leading global Internet brand and one of the most trafficked Internet destinations worldwide. Yahoo! seeks to provide online products and services essential to consumers’ lives, and offers a full range of tools and marketing solutions for businesses to connect with Internet users around the world. Yahoo! is headquartered in Sunnyvale, Calif.
About Belo Corp. Belo Corp. is one of the nation’s largest media companies with a diversified group of market-leading television, newspaper, cable and interactive media assets. A Fortune 1000 company with 7,400 employees and $1.5 billion in annual revenues, Belo operates in some of America’s most dynamic markets in Texas, the Northwest, the Southwest, Rhode Island, and the Mid-Atlantic. Belo owns 19 television stations, six of which are in the 15 largest U.S. broadcast markets. The Company also owns or operates seven cable news channels and manages one television station through a local marketing agreement. Belo’s daily newspapers are The Dallas Morning News, The Providence Journal, The Press-Enterprise (Riverside, CA) and the Denton Record-Chronicle (Denton, TX). The Company also publishes specialty publications targeting young adults, affluent populations and the fast-growing Hispanic market, including Quick and Al Dia in Dallas/Fort Worth, and the d, El D and La Prensa in Riverside. Belo operates more than 30 Web sites associated with its operating companies. Additional information is available at www.belo.com.
About Cox Newspapers Inc. (www.coxnews.com) Cox Newspapers includes 17 daily and 26 non-daily newspapers and shoppers. The company’s major metropolitan newspapers include The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Palm Beach Post, Austin American-Statesman and Dayton Daily News. Other operations include Valpak (the nation’s leader in cooperative direct mail advertising) and a one-third ownership interest in SP Newsprint (with newsprint mills in Dublin, Georgia, and Newberg, Oregon). Cox Newspapers is a subsidiary of Atlanta-based Cox Enterprises Inc., one of the nation’s leading media companies and providers of automotive services. Cox’s other operating subsidiaries include Cox Communications Inc. (cable television distribution, telephone, high-speed Internet access and other advanced broadband services); Cox Television (television and television sales rep firms); Cox Radio Inc. ([NYSE: CXR] broadcast radio stations and interactive Web sites); Manheim Auctions Inc. (vehicle auctions, repair and certification services and web-based technology products) and Cox Auto Trader (automotive publications and a majority stake in AutoTrader.com).
About Hearst Corporation Hearst Corporation (www.hearst.com) is one of the nation’s largest diversified communications companies. Its major interests include 12 daily and 20 weekly newspapers, including the Houston Chronicle, San Francisco Chronicle, and Albany Times Union; nearly 200 magazines around the world, including Cosmopolitan and O, The Oprah Magazine; 28 television stations through Hearst-Argyle Television (NYSE: HTV) which reach a combined 18% of U.S. viewers; ownership in leading cable networks, including Lifetime, A&E, The History Channel and ESPN; as well as business publishing, Internet businesses, television production, newspaper features distribution and real estate.
About Journal Register Company Journal Register Company is a leading U.S. newspaper publishing company. Journal Register Company owns 27 daily newspapers and 366 non-daily publications. Journal Register Company currently operates 231 individual Web sites that are affiliated with the Company’s daily newspapers, non-daily publications and its network of employment Web sites. These Web sites can be accessed at www.journalregister.com. All of the Company’s operations are strategically clustered in seven geographic areas: Greater Philadelphia; Michigan; Connecticut; Greater Cleveland; New England; and the Capital-Saratoga and Mid-Hudson regions of New York.
About Lee Enterprises
Lee Enterprises (NYSE: LEE) is a premier publisher of local news, information and advertising in primarily midsize markets, with 51 daily newspapers and a joint interest in five others, rapidly growing online sites and more than 300 weekly newspapers and specialty publications in 23 states. Lee’s newspapers have circulation of 1.6 million daily and 1.9 million Sunday, reaching more than four million readers daily. Lee’s online sites reach more than two million users, and Lee’s weekly publications have distribution of more than 4.5 million households. Lee’s newspaper markets include St. Louis, Mo.; Lincoln, Neb.; Madison, Wis.; Davenport, Iowa; Billings, Mont.; Bloomington, Ill.; Tucson, Ariz.; and Napa, Calif. Lee is based in Davenport, Iowa, and its stock is traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol LEE. For more information about Lee Enterprises, please visit www.lee.net.
About MediaNews Group
MediaNews Group, Inc. is the nation’s fourth largest newspaper company, with headquarters in Denver, Colo. MediaNews Group and its affiliated companies publish 61 daily newspapers and approximately 120 non-daily publications in 13 states. In addition, MediaNews Group owns a CBS affiliate in Anchorage, Alaska and four radio stations in Texas. MediaNews Group Interactive maintains more than 75 Web sites for its daily newspapers and an umbrella site, newschoice.com
About The E. W. Scripps Company The E. W. Scripps Company (NYSE: SSP) is a diverse and growing media enterprise with interests in national cable networks, newspaper publishing, broadcast television stations, interactive media, and licensing and syndication. The company’s portfolio of media properties includes: Scripps Networks, with such brands as HGTV, Food Network, DIY Network, Fine Living and Great American Country; daily and community newspapers in 18 markets and the Washington-based Scripps Media Center, home to the Scripps Howard News Service; 10 broadcast TV stations, including six ABC-affiliated stations, three NBC affiliates and one independent; Scripps Interactive Media, including leading online search and comparison shopping services, Shopzilla and uSwitch; and United Media, a leading worldwide licensing and syndication company that is the home of PEANUTS, DILBERT and approximately 150 other features and comics.
This press release contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties concerning Yahoo!’s proposed transaction with the consortium of newspapers (including without limitation the statements contained in the quotations from management in this press release), as well as Yahoo!’s strategic and operational plans. Actual events or results may differ materially from those described in this press release due to a number of risks and uncertainties. The potential risks and uncertainties include, among others, the possibility that the planned subsequent implementations described may be delayed, may not ultimately be implemented, or if implemented may not be successful; the anticipated benefits described to Yahoo!, such as expanding audience engagement and growing local advertising, may not be achieved; the reaction of consumers and advertisers to the planned collaborations; and competition from similar collaborations among other newspapers and Yahoo’s competitors. More information about potential factors that could affect Company’s business and financial results is included under the captions, "Risk Factors" and "Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations" in Yahoo!’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2005 and Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended September 30, 2006, which are on file with the SEC and available at the SEC’s website at www.sec.gov.
Yahoo! and the Yahoo! logos are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of Yahoo! Inc. All other names are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of their respective owners.
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