Real estate agents are resentful of the money they spend at local newspapers trying to please sellers. Yahoo!, one of the Internet's leading search sites, has just struck a deal with 150 newspapers across the U.S.

According to Peter Zollman, publisher of Classified Intelligence Report, a consulting newsletter for the classified advertising industry, the deal has the "potential to change the economics of the newspaper industry in the U.S. and globally."

So where do real estate classifieds fit in? They don't, at least not yet. The newspapers are going to concentrate on recruiting first by kicking off the consortium on Yahoo!'s HotJobs site where both Yahoo! and the newspapers have agreed to cooperate on "local search, contextual advertising and other content and ad relationships as well," writes Zollman.

Here's the story. Yahoo! and seven newspaper groups announced that for the first time, newspapers are working closely with a major dot-com that they don't own. So far Classified Ventures, an online partnership of newspapers has failed to set the real estate listings world on fire, despite being owned by Belo Corporation, Gannett Company, The McClatchy Company, Tribune Company and The Washington Post Company. The company's listing site is called HomeScape, which also has content from 150 newspaper partners across the U.S. and showcases listings online.

However, the listings aren't robust or specific to search fields. When requesting townhomes in Dallas between $350,000 and $500,00, nearly 500 properties popped up. Some of the homes were in Dallas County, but not the city of Dallas, and others were single-family homes, not townhomes. It did get the price range right, however.

The company also owns HomeGain, Apartments.com and Cars.com, among other properties.

The problem for newspapers is that there are simply better places to find listings if you're a consumer -- Realtor.com, for example, where there are many more listings, more artfully presented.

But give the newspapers a break. They're trying. And they're agreeing to a rare thing -- revenue sharing. In other words, it's in both the papers' and Yahoo!'s interest to make this deal work.

MediaNewsGroup, Hearst Newspapers, Belo, Cox Newspapers, Lee Enterprises, Scripps and Journal Register Co. will have 176 newspapers participating in the Yahoo! deal -- from large market leaders like the San Francisco Chronicle and the Dallas Morning News, to small local rags. More papers are expected to join.

Zollman analyzes that this is a big win for both Yahoo! and the papers. Yahoo! has been put in the shade by Google, and the papers have been criticized for "lack of focus and direction" and failure to cope with interactive media, which is critical to online housing listings with consumer interest in multiple photos, virtual tours, mapping, home valuations and much more. He points out that at Media News Group, online "yields less than 10 percent of revenue but already generates 20 percent of profits."

That's something for real estate listing and brand advertisers to think about. The Yahoo! deal may allow the Internet giant to come from behind CareerBuilder and Monster.com in classified job searches, so the jury's still out what may happen when the deals progress to include other areas of listings including real estate listings.

Says Zollman, "Integration with HotJobs is expected to begin almost immediately. The broader initiatives are supposed to kick in starting in Q1 of 2007; we expect that if they're successful, both sides will be finding new ways to work together well into 2008 and beyond."

Published: November 21, 2006

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Blanche is a renowned author of five real estate books. Her newest, Bubbles, Booms and Busts: Make Money In Any Real Estate Market, McGraw-Hill, was rave-reviewed by The New York Times. She was also selected from hundreds of real estate experts to contribute to Donald Trump's book, Trump: The Best Real Estate Advice I Ever Received: 100 Top Experts Share Their Strategies, Rutledge Hill Press, and is featured on page 68. Order Now Review - Honors In 2006, Blanche was selected among scores of candidates to author two consumer real estate guidebooks for the National Association of Realtors: The NAR Guide to Home Buying, and The NAR Guide to Home Selling, Wiley & Sons. She is currently planning two new books for the NAR and its members.       Known for her keen insight into real estate industry issues and for her ability to make complex subjects easy to understand, Blanche is a sought-after keynote and continuing education speaker. Real estate organizations from MLSs, to brokerages, to franchisors, to associations hire her to provide up-to-the-minute analysis of real estate industry news and advice on how to improve revenues. Her passionate delivery, peppered with stinging wit, is a huge hit with audiences and fans. Don Klein, CEO Greater Nashville Association of Realtors, Blanche Evans, Richard Courtney, president 2007, GRAR "The GNAR membership meeting last week featured Blanche Evans as the keynote speaker. Her comments and insights resonated extremely well with those in attendance and we have had many requests for copies of her PowerPoint Presentation. She was a terrific part of the membership meeting and convention program!" - Don Klein, CEO Greater Nashville Association of Realtors Coverage from WSMV, Nashville - 8-14-2007 That Interview Guy - Get Inside The Head Of Today's Generation 2007 AE Institute Session - To purchase 2006 AE Institute Session - Parts 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 HouseValues Mastermind call - Parts 1 2 Blanche's fireside chat with Jeremy Conaway, HAR - Click here. For more articles by Blanche, click here.