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Yahoo, newspapers in talks, report says

Elinor Mills Former Staff Writer
Elinor Mills covers Internet security and privacy. She joined CNET News in 2005 after working as a foreign correspondent for Reuters in Portugal and writing for The Industry Standard, the IDG News Service and the Associated Press.
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Elinor Mills

Could Yahoo be the knight in shining armor for the beleaguered newspaper industry? Maybe, according to an article in BusinessWeek Online on Friday.

The publication reports that Yahoo and a group of newspaper publishers, including Hearst and MediaNews Group, are in talks with Yahoo about teaming on offering classifieds, news and content packages around different industries, like travel.

"This could drive more traffic to Yahoo's help-wanted site HotJobs, which trails its key competitors, and bolster future Yahoo moves into local offerings," the article says. "Newspaper companies would build a network within what is one of the Web's top destinations and win a crucial concession in today's search-engine economy: getting a cut of the ads sold around search results of their content. It's a sore spot for publishers that this doesn't happen now."

Asked for comment, a Yahoo spokesperson said, "We're not discussing speculation and rumor related to this."