Yahoo News and the McClatchy Company announced today that they will team up to offer international news coverage from a range of international geographic regions on Yahoo News. The project, to be called "Trusted Voices," will offer in-depth perspectives and coverage from McClatchy foreign correspondents based in select regions, including Iraq, the Middle East, China and Latin America.
The coverage will include traditional news stories from McClatchy newspapers and will further tap the regional expertise of the correspondents through exclusive blog reports designed to guide readers in understanding the news from these regions.
"The daily blog contributions from the international correspondents, combined with their traditional news reports, will offer our readers an on-the-ground perspective unavailable from traditional news outlets," said Scott Moore, head of news and information, Yahoo. "World News is among the most popular categories on Yahoo! News, and partnering with the McClatchy Company will significantly expand Yahoo!'s coverage of the world's most important regions."
"Trusted Voices" is expected to launch early in the second quarter of 2007, and the scope of the programme will be expanded on the basis of early experience. One of the programme's first initiatives will be the "Inside Iraq" blog written by native Iraqi staffers based in the McClatchy Baghdad bureau, which has been operating continuously since the US invasion in 2003. McClatchy journalists based there and elsewhere in the region, such as Cairo and Jerusalem, also will contribute stories and blog posts and will advise Yahoo readers about finding other sources for additional perspectives.
"This project marries Yahoo's enormous range of coverage and unmatched audience with unique 'Trusted Voices' from McClatchy who can supply almost personalized guidance for those readers who are searching for more," said Howard Weaver, McClatchy vice president, news.
In 2005, Yahoo hired Kevin Sites, former CNN war correspondent and NBC News producer, as its first-ever news correspondent. He travelled to war zones around the world and reported on them exclusively for Yahoo for a year. That assignment ended in the fall and a new one will be announced this spring, a Yahoo spokesman said. Yahoo also has deals with financial columnists to provide content for its popular finance Website.
The McClatchy Company is the third-largest newspaper company in the United States, with 31 daily newspapers and approximately 50 nondailies. McClatchy-owned newspapers include the Miami Herald, the Sacramento Bee, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, the Kansas City Star, the Charlotte Observer, and the (Raleigh) News & Observer.
In addition, McClatchy has a robust network of internet assets, including leading local websites in each of its daily newspaper markets, offering users information, comprehensive news, advertising, e-commerce and other services. The company also owns and operates McClatchy Interactive, an interactive operation that provides websites with content, publishing tools and software development; Real Cities the largest national advertising network of local news websites, including more than 140 newspaper websites; and 15 per cent of CareerBuilder, the largest online job site in the US. McClatchy also owns 25.6 per cent of Classified Ventures, a newspaper industry partnership that offers classified websites such as cars.com and apartments.com.
