Is the news media beginning to see that buying and selling homes is a sure way to capture consumer eyeballs online? If so -- will it do anything about opinions on the real estate industry and its commissions?

In the span of a week, several announcements have come out that suggest that the news media is finally beginning to understand that consumers want more than editorials about how much commission they should be paying real estate agents. It's about time -- but what are consumers really going to get except more places to look online than ever before?

USAToday has just created an alliance with HomeGain. In case anyone's forgotten, USAToday was one of the biggest critics of NAR's VOW policy, designed to allow brokers a means of sharing yet protecting the distribution of their listings.

Back in November, 2003, USAToday published an article called, "Realtors err in efforts to horde high commissions." It editorialized, "Starting Jan. 1, a new rule by the National Association of Realtors will allow agents at traditional firms to deny listings to an innovative breed of discount Internet brokers who are slashing the average 5 percent to 7 percent commissions Realtors have long charged."

For those whose memories are even longer, HomeGain started out back in 1999 by advertising on financial websites with the come-on, "Why pay 6 percent?," and launched a limited service model, among other pricing strategies. Today, the dotcom is a referral service that matches buyers and sellers with real estate agents for which it collects a referral fee at closing.

In other news, CNN, which has been more supportive of the real estate industry than print media, announced a yearlong advertising and sponsorship deal with Century 21 Real Estate LLC. The deal includes television, broadband, online, on demand and content licensing activities. The franchise will sponsor CNN's weekly Open House program online and on TV, hosted by Gerri Willis, and will supply real estate tips, articles and other content for CNNMoney.com, among other synergies.

It's a sure thing other news giants will follow suit, as ad sales diminish and they begin to figure out that calling for lower agent commissions isn't so smart, considering that real estate, along with jobs and automobiles is one of the three largest categories of classified ad spending. Real estate also directly impacts up to 20 percent of the gross domestic product, making it not only newsworthy in other ways besides how much commissions salespeople are netting.