The Times announcement is almost dog piling the evidence of just how bad things are for newspapers in the current environment. We have reported it here quite bit but it is important for the Internet marketing crowd to see what is happening to be able to see what opportunities may arise from this shift in the balance of power in media.

My hope is that newspapers will be able to do what radio did when it was proclaimed dead with the advent of TV about 60 years ago. Radio has become very viable again and has made the transition to online in a way that makes it important again. Is it as important as it was from a pure numbers standpoint? Maybe not but it is more relevant than ever because it can segment consumers for advertisers in ways that are very valuable. It has adapted and found its place in the new world order of media.

Will newspapers be able to make the transition? Too early to tell. The changes that the Times announced were removing sections and combining other areas to cut back on traditional costs like ink and paper for its print runs. Here’s a list of some of the casualties:

• Eliminate the Friday Escapes travel section

• Reduced local area focus

• The magazine will no longer have a regular Fashion feature

These efforts are all in hopes of keeping the newspaper viable without having to make too many more staff cuts and pay reductions. As talked about here the Times also owns the Boston Globe and has gone as far as threatening to shutter the paper if unions do not cooperate to create better economic efficiencies.

What I didn’t see that was probably more upsetting is the effort to improve the online presence and possibly even recognize that the shift that is occurring almost everywhere else is also being recognized by newspapers. Of course, just moving online isn’t a silver bullet because some papers are not even seeing that work as well as hoped.

Maybe the industry has done so much harm to itself from an integrity standpoint that the consumers of news etc are saying that they want different sources regardless of the delivery vehicle. Who knows but all things to be considered when looking at this sea change that is occurring across one of the most prominent traditional media outlets there is.

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Ask.com Smart Answers are special search results placed at the top of the Ask.com search results page that have quick facts and links to authoritative content from highly respected sources.

To use the new one-click poll information, go to Ask.com and type in a question like “when do polls open?”

Then, all you need to do is click your state from the drop-down menu:

After clicking “Go”, Ask.com instantly shows the local poll hours and provides quick links to district poll locations and other voting information right on the first search results page.

According to Ask.com, this new Smart Answers feature is part of Ask.com’s mission to provide us with the best answer, the first time, every time. However, it appears that there are a “lot more clicks” required in order to actually find your polling place and where you have to vote. After going through the process on the Ask.com web site, I was then taken to the official State of Texas web site where I had to then perform an additional search at the State of Texas web site:

I hate to be cynical about all of the Ask.com new “one click” Smart Answers feature, but all that the Ask.com feature does is point you to your own state’s web site after you choose your state: that’s hardly “one click”. In fact, there are other helpful things that they could do that would make it easier, like actually recognizing your location and forwarding you directly to your state’s polling information.

What do you get when you use the Ask.com Smart Answers feature when you look to find your polling place and time?

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Even as Yahoo rolled up participants in its local online ad plans, the biggest names in publishing hung out on the sidelines. Working with Yahoo means sharing revenue, something that simply isn’t done by those used to setting the rules in the newspaper world.

The New York Times said the particulars of quadrantONE will be disclosed later today. The basic idea gives national advertisers a one-call opportunity to place ads on local newspaper sites around the country.

Attitudes held by the publishers about Internet players like Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft may be summarized by a single digit. Not a number, but a certain upraised finger:

“We want to control our own destiny,” said Lincoln Millstein, senior vice president for digital media at Hearst Newspapers.

Executives involved said the newspaper companies understand the local market better than Google, Yahoo and Microsoft and can best help national advertisers place their messages on local sites.

Substitute “house money” for “destiny” and one gets a better idea of the motivation in play.

The new initiative could have an impact on Yahoo, as some of the newspapers in its program are also part of quadrantONE. They could possibly co-exist peacefully, but we don’t see that happening. Current evidence suggests Yahoo may see departures from its consortium of more than 600 papers.