At a jam-packed session at the Online News Association Conference this weekend, the moderator of a panel asked a series of questions about the audience's usage of online ads. Here's what happened:

Moderator: Who has intentionally clicked on a display ad online in the past month?

Audience: ... A few hands go up.

Moderator: Who has responded to an e-mail ad or marketing message in the past month?

Audience: ... About 10 hands go up.

Moderator: Who has gone directly to an online retailer's site in the past month?

Audience: ... A few more hands go up.

Moderator: Who has searched for a product or service online in the past month?

Audience: ... Just about everyone raised their hand.

This just illustrates the obvious: We're all searching for "stuff". Restaurants, books, mechanics, new windows -- the list could go on forever.

In any given local market, no media outlet has more information about businesses, sales, and local products than the newspaper. Going forward, one of the smartest things a newspaper can do is harness currently available digital media technology and the newspaper's knowledge base to get the attention of people who are going online to search for stuff.

With that in mind, we present this:

Local Search: Strategies for Audience and Revenue Growth
Monday, September 22 at  2 p.m. ET (Rescheduled from August)

After much experimentation, newspapers are finding ways to serve smaller advertisers online, some through enhanced local search capabilities, some through SEO services and others through interactive business directories. This Webinar will explore two successful models for capturing non-traditional advertisers, one from a small-market newspaper and one from a larger market organization. For background on local search and directory strategies, download NAA's new report Local Search: Strategies for Audience and Revenue Growth.

Speakers:
• Sarah Wilhelm, Vice President of Sales & Business Development, Mediaphormedia,( the software division of The World Company in Lawrence, Kan.)
• Mark Robertson, Search Evangelist, Freedom Interactive

Register here!

For more information on local search, check out NAA's recently released report"Local Search: Strategies for Audience and Revenue Growth" at www.naa.org/localsearch.