Oodle Signs On San Diego

SignOnSanDiego.com, one of the more innovative newspaper sites out there, now will be running tickets, merchandise, pets and services classifieds from listings aggregator Oodle.

In the wake of yesterday’s announcement regarding Yahoo’s partnership with seven newspaper publishers, which has major implications for the online classifieds space, it’ll be interesting to see what becomes of relationships like this. Now that a huge player like Yahoo is in line to work with hundreds of papers to power, distribute, and sell classifieds, and providing paper sites the added incentive of exposure and search optimization for their content, will papers want to work with such aggregators?

The reality is, the Yahoo deal opens up the promise of a broader networked approach, something the newspaper industry desperately needs to get its online operations up to speed enough to counteract dwindling print ad dollars.

Still, this space seems to be constantly ebbing and flowing. If the classifieds providers were to not only provide classifieds services, but incentives beyond that for the publishers it aligns with, perhaps they will be able to compete without the likes of Yahoo and Google stepping in, wielding the force of their networks and gargantuan presences.

Another interesting wrinkle: Oodle powers The Washington Post metro site, Express. The company also has recently aligned with Google as part of its new print ad network trial.

The plot thickens….