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.

Since coming on board Yahoo! (NASDAQ: YHOO) early this year, Carol Bartz has wasted little time in making changes. Part of the strategy is to get the company more focused.

So, it looks like Yahoo! is in the process of selling its small business unit. All in all, it's a good asset, with web hosting, domain name services, and merchant accounts. The deal may also include the HotJobs division.

Is the news and publishing industry having an old-media and new-media revolution? Yahoo! would like you to think so. In fact, one of the world's leading web destinations is potentially joining with a consortium of newspapers to share local news, travel information and web classifieds in one of the boldest moves yet for Yahoo! -- this according to a BusinessWeek article from yesterday. This also shows the power that Internet media now has over the stalwart, old-news publishing industry. In a world where news is live and on tap 24 hours per day, newspapers desperately need partnerships to stay afloat.

One of the things I have said for a long time deals with local content flavor, and how that angle is keeping many a newspaper subscriber at this time. The papers that basically parrot AP and Reuters stories have zero value in this day and age, but the newspapers that have local authors and zeal continue to flourish well -- they engage readers. The web news portals have made valiant attempts at local flavor, but there has not yet been a compelling online alternative in my opinion.

Yahoo! has chosen content partnerships and member relationships with its hundreds of millions of users as opposed to Google, which -- so far -- has chosen to aggregate information from several sources into a readership format. So, there are two distinct strategies here from two of the top leading web companies. With this possible Yahoo! partnership with several newspapers, Yahoo!'s ties into the local scene -- and relationship with customers -- just got heavier.