The highlight of Day 2 of the NAA show was a local search panel. The length of sessions (90 minutes) results in a lower number of sessions than I’m used to attending, but the quality has in most cases made up for the quantity.

Local search has many applications to newspapers in the many forms it takes, including directory listings, classifieds, video, and mobile. Integrating all these elements to create more robust and attractive local destinations was a core theme of this panel.

Google’s education of the marketplace on what search should be  and the bar it raised in doing so  has made this job more difficult for traditionally tech-averse newspaper publishers (the industry’s overall place in the tech learning curve could be gleaned from the explanations sometimes required from the stage when terms like RSS were used).

But as mentioned yesterday, the industry is coming around and has made some sizable steps in some cases. There was a time in the not too distant past when some newspaper execs were liable to think that VoIP is a low-carb vodka and blogging is a primitive form of punishment (sometimes it is). But there is still a long way to go and, to their credit, many in the industry realize this  at least that’s the message that could be heard clearly all week here in Las Vegas.

So users’ expectations of the search experience have been molded by Google, and newspapers have a significant challenge in meeting that expectation. This isn’t only due to a lack of ability or affinity for the technology required to make it happen but is also, as I’m beginning to learn, a function of the discreet and segmented nature of newspaper content.

In order to create unified search results that combine news, classifieds and Yellow Pages content (which is something to shoot for, as we’ve said in the past), these traditionally disparate buckets of info must be brought together. There are good reasons that they erstwhile have not, besides newspapers’ lack of online innovation, which is often blamed for better or worse.

The challenge is that these different types of content have different data formats and there are correspondingly different ways to index them. Similarly, users use different terms and different search behavior to find each of them. Search queries in news can be myriad in quality and quantity when compared with that of classifieds. Classifieds in turn involve broader and more search terms than Yellow Pages content, which, by comparison, has content neatly packaged into a much smaller bucket of standard search headings.

Oodle’s Craig Donato offered this “reality check” during a classifieds/directory convergence panel at the last Drilling Down on Local conference, and Terry Millard of Planet Discover expressed similar thoughts at the NAA show.

“In automating unified search, you will get roughly 60 [percent] to 80 percent accuracy in contextually relevant results,” he said. To improve this, many on the panel agreed that an investment in manpower is necessary to manage the accuracy of the data and contextual relevance of search results. The upfront requirement to make this happen is difficult to execute and has proved scary for many publishers, according to Millard.

Another option is to integrate “social search” platforms that utilize users to tag content. This can involve a difficult adoption curve, which is why some private-label social search platforms available to newspapers run a “passive tracking” of user behavior to identify their interests (specific to a certain site, user or grouping of users), without requiring them to actively do so. These include companies we’ve written about here such as Collarity and Eurekster.

Many other challenges come in to this discussion such as branding (using the legacy brand or a new domain  a question of “brand baggage” vs. brand equity). The investment and patience required to face all these challenges and create a compelling local search destination was continually echoed by others on the panel (rest of panel members listed here).

After all, Google wasn’t built in a day; it took four years to monetize its content and see ad revenues. Unfortunately many newspapers don’t have that luxury because of finite resources and falling revenues. But it shouldn’t take that long, and opportunities do exist despite all these challenges.

“It won’t take four years, but it also won’t happen overnight,” asserted Millard.

Tomorrow, Yahoo!’s Hilary Schneider will have a much anticipated keynote that I’ll cover here along with more of a conference recap, and key takeaways from other sessions. More on today’s events can also be found over at Search Engine Watch.

Newspaper sites have done a lot of window dressing with “hyper-local” by adding neighborhood blogs and whatnot. But now some papers are challenging themselves to embrace hyper-local in all things, as they seek to tame Google and Yahoo! in search, take on the Yellow Pages in certain categories, and win back reader loyalty.

A lot of the discussion at this week’s NAA Marketing Conference in Las Vegas focused on such issues  both on and off the podium. The Boston Globe’s Boston.com, for instance, is currently on a mission to make its onsite search more relevant at the hyper-local level by optimizing all its news and features, while crawling local organization sites to come up with content that doesn’t typically come up with Google.

“We’re going for local hockey league schedules and things of that nature,” says Bob Kempf, who was recruited from GateHouse Media’s Wicked Local effort in the surrounding Boston suburbs to hyper-localize Boston.com. The site is also striving to clean up its own archives to bring out the relevance of stories during user searches, in part by building out keyword links in ways that Google’s computers probably can’t see.

Kempf, whose skunkworks reports into Michael Zimbalist at The New York Times Co., and may be applied to other company sites, says he is under no illusion that notices of a hockey schedule or clever article links will make the site a default search engine over Google or Yahoo!. But he says the effort could extend the newspaper’s mission in a way that the search engines probably won’t. And that should translate to more effective local advertising.

One issue with such a federated search approach, however, is that readers don’t always want such a 360-degree view when they are searching their newspaper site. Kempf says readers often just want to see what articles a newspaper has published, in their traditional chronological order. The site may have to offer an option to readers of straight articles, he says. It is a challenge to retrain reader expectations.

I’m at the Newspaper Association of America’s annual Marketing Conference in Las Vegas this week, where there have been lots of interesting sessions that I’ll break down in individual blog posts later. Most of the sessions were breakouts involving five different tracks, which presented the always-tough trade-off between the benefits of variety, and the reality that you can’t be in two or three concurrent sessions of interest at the same time.

I haven’t been to many past NAA shows, nor have I covered the newspaper industry long enough to have perspective on the changing industry attitudes this type of gathering can exemplify year after year (I will defer to Peter Krasilovsky on that one). But the attitude throughout the conference grounds and sessions seems to have an air of industry change, and a recognition of the need to adapt to the online models that have threatened longstanding core product models. Of course this isn’t entirely new, and recognition and execution are two different things.

During an afternoon classified session, Tom Hite, classified ad manager of OPUBCO Communications Group, gave many examples of the creative models that are working for some classified Web sites. His ultimate takeaway was that there is no one-size-fits-all model in these quickly changing times for classifieds. To be responsive to your particular market dynamics and to design and build Web site models that take those unique elements into consideration are key (but easier said than done). Newspapers to date largely haven’t had the technical chops to pull this off. And again, many examples were given, so these weren’t just generalities and empty aspirations. I’ll get into some of those examples and a deeper analysis of this session in a later post and in next week’s Local Media Journal.

There was also a very interesting social networking panel that looked at the opportunities to integrate social networking into newspaper Web sites. The thinking goes that news is very conducive to opinion and user feedback, as are many community assets held by newspapers such as classifieds and hyper-local content (recently the subject of much discussion in the newspaper world).

One of the key takeaways was that social networking components of any online newspaper can do more than attract users and raise session lengths (MySpace session lengths can be more than two hours, according to Dan Strauss, VP and GM of Fox Interactive Media, who sat on the panel). Something often ignored is social networking’s ability to generate and facilitate community interaction and compete with other media such as television. This can get readers engaged in local and national subjects that are core competencies of newspapers. There are direct and (equally important) indirect benefits to social networking for online newspapers in other words. This session also deserves its own post  more in-depth than this overview post can offer  so stay tuned.

There have been lots of newspaper news and announcements in and around the NAA show so far, and I imagine much more to come. Here is a sampling:

 LostRemote reports that The San Francisco Chronicle is experimenting with podcasts of users that call in to express thoughts or give feedback. This could be an interesting experiment that puts a new twist on the principles of the longstanding Letters to the Editor department. This type of creative thinking is being talked about a lot during sessions at the NAA show. But as mentioned in the previous post, it probably goes without saying that talk and action are two different things.

 LostRemote also reports on a recent survey of teachers that affirms much of what we already know about print newspapers falling behind television and the Web as a top source of news for young people.

 Topix.net announced that it will integrate its free general merchandise classifieds across Tribune Co. newspaper Web sites by May (starting right away with Baltimoresun.com). Topix.net is here at the NAA show, and I hope to catch up with the company to get more information. Tribune’s ownership structure meanwhile continues to be shrouded in question marks.

 Elsewhere in Tribune Co., the publisher has made a somewhat uncharacteristically progressive move in announcing a partnership with video sharing site vMix in order to enable user-generated content across its 50 newspaper sites (including the Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune and New York’s Newsday). This will include the capability for user-generated videos, photos and blogs.

 Lastly, online ad sales firm AdStar has partnered with Kaango, an online classified publishing platform used by, among others, Scripps and MediaNews Group. These publishers will now be able to have a one-stop shop approach to sell print and Web classified space. I’m scheduled to talk to AdStar later today and will have more info then.

In the meantime ClickZ’s Kate Kaye reports from the NAA show about some of the classified deals mentioned above that are signaling the continued recognition that publishers need to embrace and build better online models. She also has an interesting angle on the AdStar/Kaango deal; how MediaNews Group’s lead in the recently formed Yahoo! advertiser consortium could position Yahoo! to rival Google’s forays into print advertising distribution.

More to come later.

Fox Interactive Media, the home of MySpace, Fox Sports, Fox News and other sites, definitely has local on its agenda and is rolling out several new features to bring users more in touch with their communities, says Dan Strauss, VP and general manager, who was speaking on a panel at the NAA Marketing Conference in Las Vegas.

Strauss, who got his start in local 12 years ago as the first head of Advance’s Cleveland.com, says one of the company’s biggest local-themed projects is a “news discovery” area for MySpace, which should launch in a couple of months. My Space already has a nascent local classified area. “It’s not just newspapers, but blogs.”

Another related FIM effort (perhaps the same effort?) is MyFoxLocal from the sports division. Soft launches have already occurred for MyFoxLA, MyFox Chicago and one or two other markets, he says. “Fox News will be involved too, says Strauss. “We’re helping communities cover stories.”

Meanwhile, newspaper sites appearing on the NAA panel with Strauss said they are working to complement MySpace’s appeal to young people with local offerings. “Local matters,” says Bakotopia GM Dan Pachecho. Bakotopia is the youth-oriented site for The Bakersfield Californian, a family-owned newspaper in the Inland Empire community. He notes that people will want to interact with other people and businesses that are nearby.

Pachecho says the company is in the midst of rolling out a Yelp-like “Insider Guide” that will contain profiles on local businesses. He sees the guide as a natural extension of a MySpace-like personal profile section. “If a user can create a profile, why can’t a restaurant? Why can’t people review that restaurant?”

One advantage that his company has over non-local rivals is that it has established multiple access points for Bakersfield residents, he adds. “Businesses can interactive in nine ways” over its nine sites, says Pachecho. The company is also mulling over new revenue ops, such as charging businesses to send out targeted text messages.

(My colleague Mike Boland has much more play-by-play coverage from the convention. Check out his previous posts.)

Back in 1999, Microsoft sold a small business called Sidewalk because it didn’t fit into its core software business at the time. In a lengthy story in Sunday’s New York Times, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer admitted: “but Sidewalk was really aimed at what we now call local search. Sidewalk is one (business) we should not have gotten out of.”

It is interesting to speculate what the Web would be like today if Microsoft had not sold Sidewalk. The Kelsey Report’s Program Director at the time, Dan Miller, founder and senior analyst for Opus Research, described MSN Sidewalk as “Microsoft’s private labeling of the Internet. It includes pure access, a home page, personalized utilities (including your favorites) and both technical and generic customer support for all of Microsoft’s products and services.” The relaunch of Sidewalk.com (a stand-alone city guide) to MSN Sidewalk (an online guide) took a page out of the Yellow Pages songbook by calling itself the place that brings buyers and sellers together.

Microsoft executives described e-commerce as “find, choose, buy.” By 1999, Microsoft claimed 4.7 million unduplicated visitors each month to the more than 70 Sidewalk cities with more than 6,000 local businesses participating as advertisers and paying an estimated $26 million for space on MSN Sidewalk. MSN Sidewalk was highly complementary to Microsoft’s core business of selling and supporting software (think a platform for distributing software upgrades, providing free e-mail  hotmail  and sustaining dialogue with its development community). TKG believed that the only downside to Microsoft was that this business required a long-term investment. In October 1998, Dan wrote, “We’d like to go on the record right now saying that MSN Sidewalk, as an Internet Yellow Pages or buyer’s guide, might fail  in the near term there probably isn’t enough traffic on the worldwide Web to justify its advertising rates.”

He further questioned the depth of local sales relationships and the dearth of merchants with transaction processing infrastructure to support “a stand-alone business. That’s just the point. Microsoft does not treat its Internet-based operations as a stand-alone business. It is very much its core operation and is becoming more so as operating systems and applications programs are distributed across IP-based networks,” Dan wrote.

So it was not surprising to read the New York Times article about Steve Ballmer regretting the decision to sell Microsoft Sidewalk in 1999. We thought it was a mistake at the time (although when the Internet bubble burst not too long afterward it didn’t seem wrong). But Ballmer is wrestling with the same issues today that he was then because the company stepped back from making that long-term investment. If they hadn’t, MSN might be in the same position that Windows and Office are.

Yell.com, which calls itself the United Kingdom’s local search engine, is working with Oodle.co.uk, a search engine for local classified advertisements, which will enable people who access Yell.com to post their own free advertisements on the site.

While Yell is certainly not the first Yellow Pages publisher to offer classifieds (not to mention newspaper publishers that offer Yellow Pages), its approach is interesting. Eddie Cheng, president of Yell.com, said, “We are always ready to try new approaches to ensure that Yell.com is a key destination for Web users.” We agree that this will increase traffic and enhance Yell.com’s position in the U.K. marketplace.

Yellow Pages Group has made several major acquisitions in the classified advertising space, as have Eniro and Sensis, among others. Online local directional media continues its march toward convergence.

When Freedom Communications recruited Michael Mathieu, the monetization leader from United Online (Classmates.com, NetZero, etc.), it was opting for change with a capital “C.” Freedom, of course, is the longtime libertarian owner of 70 properties, including The Orange County Register, a bunch of small papers, a number of magazines and specialty publications, and 21 TV stations. But it has traditionally held back from investing in new media.

Six months later, Mathieu has gotten a budget approved to hire up to 80 staffers  it is currently up to 40  and laid out the blueprint of what’s now being called “The Phoenix Project.” And … it looks a lot like Gannett’s Information Center, as Mathieu is the first to agree.

“It does seem similar. We were surprised when we first saw what they were also doing. It is all about how we deal with information and target and engage local audiences” with user-generated content, and events directory via Zvents, and other features. “It’s not just news,” he adds.

Moreover, the changes are “not just cosmetic. We’re tearing out the infrastructure. Everything we’re doing is Web first, print second.”

Mathieu says the company has been amazingly supportive of all his efforts. “They knew they’d disintegrate in a couple of years” without drastic change, he said. It was also helpful that Freedom brought in Scott Flanders as CEO just a year ago.

One of the first orders of business has been Mathieu’s creation of a national sales organization and Freedom Net, a national network representing Freedom’s 225 various Web sites. “We’re using common ad sizes for national ads,” he says. “If McDonald’s wants to promote their McRib sandwich tomorrow, they can do it.” Freedom Net will eventually have 12 national salespeople across the network.

Another early effort has been helping to break the industry’s cold war with Monster.com and signing up as a partner, instead of going with Yahoo! Hot Jobs or pursuing an alternative strategy. “We are so impressed with them,” he said.

Before the end of 2006, co-branded Monster sites were launched in the company’s largest markets: Orange County, Colorado Springs and Mesa, AZ. By the end of the first quarter, all the newspapers will be co-branded. And by the second quarter, the TV stations will be co-branded as well.

As for The Phoenix treatment, the first sites to be Phoenix-ized aren’t the newspapers, as one might expect, but the TV stations. “TV is a much easier canvass,” says Mathieu. “The newspapers are more complex, with monthlong ad deals” and other factors. Thirteen of the 21 stations have already been redone.

Mathieu says he considered partnering with Web site enablers for the TV stations, such as WorldNow, IBS and BIM. In the end, however, he made the decision not to partner. “We’d have to give up too much revenue share,” he said. The company has also gone its own way in building its own content system.

Another priority, says Mathieu, has been to further develop Freedom’s “Faux Alt” newsweekly, Squeeze OC, which may be replicated in other markets. The Squeeze OC team, in fact, has just moved to Freedom Interactive’s headquarters, which is a couple of miles from the corporation’s headquarters in Santa Ana, CA. It is all by design, he says. “We’re giving them the resources to flourish online.”

There is a marketing guy who is trying to build his business by telling people that the best way to get more golden eggs is to kill the goose that laid them. Larry Bodine’s LawMarketing Blog recommends that lawyers do just that. He says, “cancel that #*$%! expensive Yellow Pages ad” and brags that he gave that “clear advice” to attendees at two recent conferences. Why? Because, according to Mr. Bodine, “fewer people are reading the Yellow Pages every day.”

Ken Clark gave a very effective response only to be told that his rebuttal was “rantings  someone from the Yellow Pages industry.”

Now I can understand that marketing people want to attract attention, and I believe that one of the great things about blogs is that they give everyone, no matter how little he or she knows about a subject, the opportunity to express an opinion in an open forum. But Larry, your “clear advice” is clearly bad for the majority of attorneys. Here are just a few reasons. Yes, Yellow Pages references have declined from 15.1 billion in 2002 to 14.5 billion in 2005. Every traditional medium has been negatively affected by the Internet, but if you add in Internet Yellow Pages references, the number of people using the Yellow Pages is growing.

So let me provide some clear advice to attorneys who want to see their business grow: Advertise in the Yellow Pages. Why?

1. In 2002, there were 263.6 million references to the print Yellow Pages. In 2005, that number had grown to 311.5 million, according to Knowledge Networks/SRI.

2. Eighty-one percent of people who go to the attorney heading in print Yellow Pages say they have already done business or intend to do business with an attorney. In other words, they are ready to buy.

3. The return on investment for attorneys who advertise in Yellow Pages is 18 to 1. In other words, according to CRM Metered Ad Study, for every $1 invested in print Yellow Pages, attorneys can expect to get back $18 in revenues.

Mr. Bodine, a good marketer should tell his clients the whole story.

Nielsen/NetRatings has announced U.S. search share rankings for December 2006. Google Search tops the list with an estimated 3 billion search queries, representing 51 percent of all search queries conducted last month.