Next digital step leads to content near you

January 09, 2007 The creative mining of the local businesses, services, resources and interests so ingrained in our everyday lives can take the personalization of digital broadband interactivity, as well as the profits of participating companies, to the next level and remind struggling newspapers, radio and TV stations of how they can more ingeniously tap what was once their exclusive domain. Merrill Lynch analyst Jessica Reif Cohen estimates that AOL's advertising business could be acquired for about $18 billion by Yahoo!, in which case the deal would be immediately accretive with only $100 million in combined cost savings and the acceptance of Time Warner as its new largest single shareholder. There will be no sexy celebration of the value of local content and services in the bustling exhibition halls of this week's annual International Consumer Electronics Show or next week's National Assn. of Television Program Executives, both in Las Vegas.

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