Local CPMs Up for McClatchy Sites

An interesting tidbit came out of McClatchy’s Q2 earnings call yesterday. VP Interactive Media Chris Hendricks was asked about CPM rate trends, and this was his response (see the full transcript on SeekingAlpha):

Generally at the local level, the CPMs are rising because it is a supply/demand type of business. As more advertisers want the inventory we have, we can push up rates. At the national level, they pretty much remain consistent. There is plenty of ad inventory out there for just general advertising as opposed to a specific local type of business.

Well, if an uptick in CPMs starts anywhere, it makes sense it’s with the local advertisers that have been on their local newspaper sites ever since salespeople started throwing Web ads in as value-adds.

National advertisers, as Hendricks noted, have yet to be there with any gusto, so CPMs are flat. Might this change when Yahoo starts peddling newspaper inventory (including that of McClatchy’s sites) to national advertisers? I’ll have to ponder that one, but I’d bet there are plenty of people on both sides of that fence.