The Chicago Tribune reports that Gannett, Tribune, Hearst, Media News and Cox are discussing an online advertising partnership that would “both overlap with and compete with” the Yahoo newspaper constortium. (Hearst, Media News and Cox are part of the Yahoo deal.) “Yahoo still has the best technology platform,” says one newspaper executive who’s part of the Yahoo group. “But why shouldn’t the newspaper industry have its own [ad sales] firm? Don’t you want to get out and tell your own story?” The new ad network would have its own national ad sales firm with a single point of contact for national agencies. The hope is the new group would eventually attract the Washington Post Co. and McClatchy.
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