The company's deal with seven newspaper groups will give Yahoo a possible extension beyond job classifieds to working with publishers on contextual ads, local search, and other revenue generating possibilities.

An updated report from Classified Intelligence on the arrangement between HotJobs and its new print media partners identified some of the 176 papers involved as among the top publications in the country.

The San Francisco Chronicle, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, and the Dallas Morning News among others will be part of the effort. MediaNews Group CEO and vice-chairman Dean Singleton said in the report he expects the deal to be a transformational one for his industry.

Yahoo CFO Susan Decker, a former newspaper stock analyst, commented that the agreement would direct a "significant revenue boost" to HotJobs, but did not comment on projections.

There are a couple of problems HotJobs will have to overcome with the help of its new friends from the world of print journalism. Those problems would be CareerBuilder and Monster, rated one and two in the US market for job classifieds.

How Yahoo and its print partner approach the problems could be different for each partner. The report noted that Yahoo signed independent agreements with each company. Each one also has a separate letter of intent with Yahoo.

Classified Intelligence founding principal Peter Zollman said the time was right for Yahoo to make these deals, especially with Decker and Yahoo's senior VP of Marketplace Hilary Schneider, ex-Knight Ridder Digital, having backgrounds in the newspaper industry.

Likewise, newspaper publishers have been looking for a company to deal with for these opportunities. Zollman commented on the dynamics of the agreements:

"We've been asked, ‘Who's the bigger winner here - Yahoo or the newspapers?' It's tough to say; we'd vote for ‘both.' Yahoo has been struggling in a growing shadow cast by Google, and has been criticized for a lack of focus and direction.
"HotJobs had some of the best online recruitment products, but it had become an afterthought behind CareerBuilder.com and Monster.com. Meantime, newspapers have been desperately trying to find a breakout strategy in interactive media. Even though many are growing substantially online (30-50 percent revenue growth year-over-year), that's from a very small base."
Zollman's reference to criticism of Yahoo's performance was prefaced over the weekend by the publication of a highly critical memo dubbed the 'Peanut Butter Manifesto' by observers. The leaked memo called for substantial job cuts and a reduction in duplicated products in Yahoo's operations.

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Tags: Yahoo, HotJobs, Peanut Butter Manifesto

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