ShiftedPixels

You have gotta love big media... (From NY Times)

"Four large newspaper companies are joining forces to sell advertisements on the Internet, hoping that the combined heft of their Web sites will encourage large advertisers to spend more money.

Each of the four companies - the Tribune Company, the Gannett Company, the Hearst Corporation and The New York Times Company - is transferring a portion of its online ad space to quadrantONE, a new company that will be announced Friday.

The purpose of the joint venture, which will be based in Chicago and will hire 17 people [commitment!], is to let national advertisers place ads on local Web sites with a single phone call [phone call!]."

"In total, quadrantONE will be able to reach about 50 million unique visitors a month, its executives said, citing Nielsen Online data.

"We want to control our own destiny," said Lincoln Millstein, senior vice president for digital media at Hearst Newspapers.

Executives involved said the newspaper companies understand the local market better than Google, Yahoo and Microsoft and can best help national advertisers place their messages on local sites".

To give the NY Times credit they did have some critics onboard

"But not everyone agrees.

"I don't think the alignment of newspaper companies will solve the issue," said Shar VanBoskirk, an analyst who covers online advertising at Forrester Research. "They need that alignment with a technology company that will bring them the set of skills that they need to monetize their content."