Here’s what this entails:

• ABC News will become the premier news provider on Yahoo News
• ABC’s GoodMorningAmerica.com launches on Yahoo today at GMA.yahoo.com
• New original web series featuring ABC News anchors. This will start with programs called “Newsmakers,” “Around the World with Christiane Amanpour,” and “This Could Be Big.” Others will follow in the coming months.
• The editorial teams of both media organizations will work together to develop news content.
• The sales teams will also work together on advertising solutions.
• Both will retain editorial control of their own properties.

“Yahoo! is committed to building the richest set of premium and personalized content experiences for our users. Our deep collaboration with ABC News further strengthens Yahoo! as the No. 1 online news source, greatly enhancing our already robust news content,” said Ross Levinsohn, executive vice president of Americas at Yahoo. “ABC News and Ben Sherwood’s vision is completely symbiotic with ours; together we can create highly engaging experiences for more than 100 million users a month that will set the standard for the industry.”

“This relationship will give ABC News an unrivaled ability to reach across the Web, combining Yahoo!’s vast distribution and cutting-edge technology with our award-winning journalism.  For years, we’ve proudly proclaimed that more Americans get their news from ABC News than any other source,” said ABC News President Ben Sherwood.  “Going forward, we will greatly expand this leadership by building a connection with a whole new online audience.”

Clearly Yahoo isn’t letting that lack of a CEO slow them down.

After all, upon first hearing of the partnership, I tried to be polite, but the obvious just had to be stated: “sounds like a joke.”  People tend not to look for political news on Facebook, and that’s precisely what ABC News tried to supply.  Then, after getting their fill on the social network, folks were supposed to head to the main ABC News site.

Michael Learmonth has details of the project’s results, writing, “ABCNews.com self-reported a 28% spike in unique visitors in November to 16.3 million from the same time a year ago; page views increased 7% to 148.1 million.  But they also reported a 21% jump in October while Nielsen NetRatings says traffic to ABCNews.com was actually down 4% in October.”

He then adds, “They’re not getting much help from Facebook, which reports just 10,300 daily users of the ABC News application.”

Admittedly, the 2008 presidential election is still a long ways off, so there’s plenty of time for the ABC-Facebook arrangement to save itself.  “12-Pound Tumor Consumes Man’s Face” is one of the current ABC News “Top Headlines,” though, and that makes me think some other news site might be more deserving of traffic.

Videos, polls, and ABC headlines are all bundled (among other items) into an application called US Politics.  While it doesn’t exactly pander to young people, the app’s layout is fairly “infographic” in style, and should elicit better responses than a bunch of text-only coverage.

An article from ABC News itself also demonstrated that it’s serious about reaching different demographics; according to the division, “Discussions and reactions by Facebook members will play into how ABC News approaches its coverage of campaign events.”

At this point, a person still might interpret the arrangement as a case of old media trying to adapt to the times.  It’s important for Facebook, too, however – Brian Stelter reports that this is the company’s first deal with any news organization, and the development should help the site be taken more seriously.

Keep an eye out for more deals along these lines, as well – there appears to be nothing exclusive about Facebook’s relationship with ABC News.

"We are excited to work with CustomFlix Labs to provide Amazon.com customers with another opportunity to access quality ABC News content," said Bernard Gershon, senior vice president and general manager, ABC News Digital Media.

"Through CustomFlix Labs, ABC News will offer exclusive interviews, historical moments and classic documentaries on Amazon.com, some of which will be available for the first time."

ABC News viewers can purchase and collect ABC News Classics and ABC News Specials along with historic events such as Presidential Farewells and State of the Union addresses.

"ABC News owns an amazing archive of content capturing pivotal moments of our era, but the high cost of traditional DVD manufacturing and distribution has kept many of these gems locked away," said Dana LoPiccolo-Giles, co-founder and managing director of CustomFlix Labs.

"Our DVD on Demand solution is the perfect way to unlock this content and make it broadly available to news buffs everywhere."

Yahoo! to Serve UP BBC Videos

As part of an agreement with ABC News, Yahoo is beginning to offer BBC News video on its site. Yahoo! users will now have access to approximately 30 video clips of BBC News video each day, including a large assortment of videos pertaining to most major news and entertainment genres.

Nearly a year ago, ABC News signed a deal with the BBC to become the exclusive distributor of the channel’s broadband content throughout North America. Today’s announcement leverages Yahoo! News as the primary platform for BBC News video distribution pursuant to the January agreement.

“The BBC has established itself as an unparalleled global news-gathering organization, and its content will be a tremendous complement to the world class news already available on our site,” said Scott Moore, head of news and information for Yahoo! Media Group.

“The BBC has a cool factor with younger audiences, a natural fit for Yahoo! News users who are generally younger than audiences at other news organizations.”

The videos will be made available for free to Yahoo! News users as part of an ad-supported model.

This announcement, of course, begs an even larger question pertaining to the future of BBC programming and Yahoo!’s online video offerings:

When will Yahoo! offer exclusive episodes of Monty Python’s Flying Circus?

Come on, you know you were thinking it, too. Yahoo! definitely needs to look at the bigger picture when it comes to the virtual goldmine they’re sitting on when it comes to BBC television distribution.

Two facts remain unchallenged here:

This is the kind of score that will give Yahoo! an advantage over Google in the online video marketplace. Who knows, maybe it could spurn a whole trend of bringing cult BBC television to North America for mass distribution.

First Monty Python, then Absolutely Fabulous, the possibilities are virtually endless!

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Joe is a staff writer for WebProNews. Visit WebProNews for the latest ebusiness news.