Internet giants Microsoft Corp., Google Inc. and Yahoo! Inc. are all vying to be newspapers' best friends.
At a panel discussion on "Partnerships in Transition," the three companies made their pitches about why forming partnerships with newspapers makes sense for both sides.
Hilary Schneider, senior vice president of marketplace for Yahoo!, and a former senior vice president at Knight Ridder, cited Yahoo's national sales force, well-developed infrastructure and significant audience as reasons for newspapers to form a partnership with the media company. Newspapers, she added, bring their brands, local content and local sales capabilities. Schneider called the relationship between Yahoo! and newspapers a long-term "marriage."
Tom Phillips, director of media platforms at Google, said his company's goal is to bring new advertisers and revenues into newspapers. With 90-95 percent of newspaper revenue coming from print, "you can't abandon that domain." He added, "There's all kinds of value there that's untapped." And newspaper Web sites, he noted, capture "a small fraction of the potential of the digital medium."
The reason to form such relationships is simple, according to Harry Patz, general manager of Microsoft Communications Sector North America: "It's just a great business opportunity for both of us."
-- Mary Lynn F. Jones