Yahoo Launches Local News Beta; Gillmor Suggests Another Way To Expand News Coverage

Launched quietly Friday, Yahoo’s local news beta adds both to the site’s news depth and its social media potential. The first batch of sources includes 400-plus RSS feeds from traditional news outlets in 82 markets; each market page has an ad. Some high-profile names are missing as Yahoo News works with publishers to get bypass agreements that will allow users to click through from headlines without barriers. For example, the New York Times is already on board but discussions are still underway with NYTCO sib Boston Globe.

“We tried to do this in a way that publishers would find this acceptable,” says Yahoo News GM Neil Budde, although they weren’t in touch with every site prior to launch. Formerly responsible for the Wall Street Journal Online, Budde says he thinks publishers will gain new visitors. “People who come to Yahoo News are a fairly different audience. It’s going to help expose some local sites they may not have been to.” In addition, he says some publishers may provide special RSS feeds for Yahoo News to produce an ordered story list instead of the more random first in, last out, something that gives them more control.

But the real emphasis is on the user. That’s one reason the beta tag will stick indefinitely. “We wanted to signal that this will be a continued evolution,” says Budde. Users have already sent in more than 100 new source suggestions. Blogs and other non-traditional sources are likely additions as are Yahoo’s own social media tools. As Budde is quick to note, the pages are not visually exciting, That could change with locally relevant photos from Flickr. Tagged links from recently acquired del.icio.us would make sense along with mapping and other local assets within Yahoo. The Yahoo News Search team is already involved.

A different kind of local news: Dan Gillmor suggests an admittedly convoluted way to expand Yahoo’s news reach — buy the San Jose Mercury News and other Bay Area Knight Ridder’s papers placed on the block by McClatchy. “The out-of-left-field play is a Yahoo buyout of the Merc and, perhaps, the Contra Costa papers, ideally in league with employees, and to turn the Bay Area — far and away the best place for this in America — into a living laboratory of tomorrow’s journalism.” In favor, says the former Merc News columnist: “This wouldn’t be an expensive acquisition by Yahoo standards, and the paper’s cash flow is still significant, so Yahoo’s shareholders might willingly tolerate such an experiment.”

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