Newspaper websites seem to be the preferred source of local news for consumers, according to the Newspaper Association of America and comScore (SCOR). Fifty-seven percent of respondents are drawn to local newspaper websites. But take this with a grain of salt: 54% chose online portals and 53% selected local television websites. In terms of what consumers consider the most trusted local news source to be, newspapers have the lead, but the gap is narrowing. Now, only 33% choose the newspaper for this reason, with local television sites pulling in 32%.

"While newspaper Web sites often face dozens of competitors touting their own local offerings in any given market, they have been able to thrive by leveraging trusted brands and strong local content to appeal to consumers and advertisers alike," John Sturm, president and CEO of the NAA, said in a statement.

With a larger chunk of Americans out of work -- larger than have been in a long time -- leading job search sites Monster.com and CareerBuilder will be looking to gain their share of that market with commercials during the Super Bowl (subscription required). The problem is that these companies make their money from charging fees from employers that advertise on the site. The plethora of people looking for jobs doesn't help their earnings. Instead, they are being crunched by the dwindling number of companies looking to hire.

Monster's parent company Monster Worldwide (NYSE: MWW) is hoping the ads will draw attention to its redesigned website that will debut in January.

According to The Wall Street Journal, many observers question the huge investment required for these ads (as much as $3 million for a a 30-second spot) and believe that since both companies already have strong name recognition, they would be better off investing the funds to attract revenue-generating employers.

Career Builder's chief marketing officer, Richard Castellini, disagrees and says that the ads will also appeal to potential advertisers: "How many of those viewers are corporate buyers? A large percentage."

But surely there are more targeted ways to connect with human resources people for less than $100,000 per second.

In a move that would indicate that it is not a likely buyer for Monster Worldwide Inc. (NASDAQ:MNST), Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) has taken a 4% stake in CareerBuilder, the online job site controlled by three newspaper chains. This investment is hard to understand.

Microsoft gets a small stake in a business that may be valuable, but has competition from Yahoo!'s Inc. (NASD:YHOO) Hotjobs and a number of smaller sites. There have been rumors that Monster will be bought by one of the big web portals to increase access to the fast-growing online job business. The tiny equity deal with CareerBuilder seems to rule MSN out of that race.

Gannett Co. (NYSE:GCI), The Tribune Company (NYSE:TRB), and McClatchy Co. (NYSE:MNI) run CareerBuilder as a way to keep revenue from job classified ads that is moving from newspapers to the Web..

Caree Builder is the exclusive online job provider for Microsoft's MSN portal. That deal will be extened to 2013, and Microsoft will be paid about $443 million for maintaining the arrangement.

And, MSN could use all of the help it can get.

Douglas A. McIntyre is a partner at 24/7 Wall St.