According to TechCrunch:

Four leading US newspaper companies are to announce a new joint company today to sell targeted local online advertising on their respective sites. The Tribune Company, the Gannett Company, the Hearst Corporation and The New York Times Company will jointly own quadrantONE, with a base in Chicago that will employ 17 people.

This move is clearly an attempt to become competitive in the online advertising market which is currently dominated by the big 3: Google, Yahoo!, and Microsoft, but it’s probably too little, too late.

Large newspaper companies are finally waking up to the fact that advertising spend is shifting from the old media to the new media and rather than doing something about it years ago instead of going into denial over declining print spend, are all of a sudden wielding a dusty battle axe in an attempt to take on the mighty internet companies.

Will it work? I don’t think so…