A Webcast with FAST, Editor and Publisher, and Boston.com

Now that local search is in full swing, nearly everyone in the news business is looking at how to incorporate it into their business model and grab a piece of the advertising pie. And why shouldn't they? Locally targeted advertising in newspapers, yellow pages, radio, outdoors, direct mail, spot cable/TV and coupons already exceeds $100 billion, according to some estimates.

Further, the buying pubic has become comfortable with leveraging the Internet for local information. More and more brick and mortar businesses are marketing themselves online causing search engines to become more like advertising platforms and less like a directory listing. So it is not a question of "if" traditional news outlets will reap the benefits of this new medium, but a question of "when".

In fact, analysts are already lining up with their take on how big local search advertising is going to be. The Kelsey Group forecasts that local search advertising will grow to $4.1 billion worldwide this year and then to more than $11 billion by 2011. Borrell Associates pegs the numbers a bit higher reaching $7.7 billion in 2007 in the U.S. alone and nearly $10 billion by 2010, albeit its definition of localized search is a bit broader.

Whatever the formula for local search inclusion may be-geotargeted display ads, classifieds, local paid search, local video, email campaigns-the newspaper industry and news industry in general are looking to get their piece of the pie. But how do newspaper companies tap into the growing local search market? What technology is needed? Is there a chance of cannibalizing the existing print base?

Join Editor & Publisher for this FAST-sponsored Web Seminar and hear from industry experts how your newspaper operation can break into the localized search market. Attend this online-only event and learn how to overcome the obstacles and how progressive newspapers have already integrated localized search into their business models and have grown their audience and advertising base and how you can do the same.