Tuesday’s Poynter Centerpiece asked a good question about the content, technology and advertising agreement between Yahoo and six major newspaper companies: “Big Deal or No Big Deal?”

Initial signs point to “big deal”. The companies involved in the agreement (MediaNews, Belo, Hearst, Scripps, Journal Register, Lee and Cox) represent 176 newspapers – clearly not a small number of publications. And any announcement from an Internet giant involving newspapers gets plenty of media attention. (For examples, see the New York Times, Washington Post, San Francisco Chronicle, etc.)

TheStreet.com reporter Nat Worden noted in a Tuesday news analysis article that “the willingness on the part of Google and Yahoo! to cut revenue-sharing deals with publishers that have been written off by some investors as a dying breed is evidence that daily papers, and their expensive news-gathering operations, still provide indispensable content for their local audiences.”

Stock prices of the publicly-traded newspaper companies involved were mixed Monday and Tuesday. Yahoo’s stock price decreased Monday slightly and increased Tuesday.

See this analysis and commentary for more:

The Yahoo Partnership -- Big Deal or No Big Deal? (Poynter)

Papers Embrace Enemy (TheStreet.com)

The yahoos and Yahoo (BuzzMachine)

Newspapers, Yahoo Deal Biggest Yet (LostRemote)