Newspaper sites try to attract local advertising

In an attempt to expand online revenue, many newspapers are trying to attract more advertising from local businesses, according to The New York Times.

Local advertisers are expected to spend almost $12.9 billion online this year, almost five times what they spent in 2004, according to Borrell Associates, a firm that researches local media. But while newspaper sites received 44 percent of local Internet revenue in 2004, that figure dropped to 27 percent this year, according to Borrell.

Some companies, like the E.W. Scripps Company, are trying to get some of that revenue share back by putting a renewed focus on local ads and changing how online advertising works.
Rusty Coats, vice president of interactive for E.W. Scripps' newspaper division, says that he expects Scripps web sites to sell enough advertising to support their papers by 2012.
With print revenues declining at most papers around the country, and online revenues slowing in their growth, such an accomplishment would provide a welcome model for the newspaper industry.

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