Gannett, Knight Ridder and Tribune Acquire CrossMedia Services: “‘The Web has become a huge resource for consumers who search online and then buy offline in their favorite local stores,’ said Brian Hand, CrossMedia Services chairman and chief executive officer. ‘Our online solutions complement the way consumers use the daily and Sunday newspapers to find ‘what’s on sale’ and other great values in their local markets.'”
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As I’m directly involved with this project, I can’t say too much about it (especially as this is my personal blog, and doesn’t represent my work or thinking as an employee of Knight Ridder Digital). HOWEVER, I will say that I’m proud, supportive and perhaps a bit relieved to see the newspaper chains final playing in a substanative way in the search space (i.e., beyond our agreements with Google/Overture for web/contextual).
No, this isn’t the next Google. But it should ultimately be a valuable service for both consumers and “brick-n-mortar” advertisers, and that is a good basis to build upon.