KnightRidder.com Partners With Belo InteractiveKnightRidder.com Partners With Belo Interactive

The Internet can connect users around the world, but when KnightRidder.com looks at the Internet, it sees an opportunity to link its readers with information--and advertisers--right in their hometowns.

The Web subsidiary of the nation's second-largest newspaper publisher formed a partnership Monday with Belo Interactive that makes KnightRidder.com's Real Cities network of city and regional Web sites the largest collection of local online media companies. Real Cities has sites in 15 of the top 25 demographic markets and about 8 million unique users a month.

"People still shop locally. They really care about things locally. When you have a family with kids, you have to ferry them here and there and think about camps and schools and all that," says Lem Lloyd, senior director for business development at KnightRidder.com. Providing local content for those needs is what "we excel at," he adds. "If a local paper has 500 people in a newsroom, no one's going to rival that."

Belo Interactive is the Internet arm of Belo, which owns 17 TV stations, owns or operates six cable news channels, and publishes four daily newspapers. Fifteen of Belo Interactive's 35 newspaper and television Web sites are joining the Real Cities Network. Those properties broaden KnightRidder.com's reach and give it a mix of print and video sources for news, weather, traffic, and other information on individual city sites.

The sites, such as Miami.com, Twincities.com, and Philly.com, rely on advertising for the bulk of their revenue, and now that the parent site has a greater reach, it will be easier to sign up national advertisers, Lloyd says.

"Everybody realizes we need to put print and video together more, especially on the Web, for advertising," Lloyd says. "This is a one-stop national shop for users."