To compete in the local information and ad market being tapped by Google, Yahoo and other internet companies, Gannett plans to next month introduce banner ads on its newspaper websites that can be expanded into online versions of local weekly newspaper ad circulars, writes the New York Times. The service, called PaperBoy, was created Gannett unit PointRoll and would give national advertisers a way to reach online readers with promotions tied to neighborhood stores. Christopher Saridakis, PointRoll's chief executive, said the company had signed 20 percent of the nation's top 50 advertisers. "And we've been selling it for just about a month now."

Saridakes said he expected to charge a significant premium for the ads - between $3 and $4 more over current CPM - but would charge newspapers a premium of closer to $2 early on, to deliver the ads on behalf of advertisers.

When visitors to newspaper sites roll over one of the new ads at the top of a newspaper web page, the ad will expand into a miniature, animated version of a newspaper circular, with dog-eared pages flipping and showing special sale prices on items available at the local store - or at another one when the user enters a ZIP code.

PointRoll is relying in part on a system created by ShopLocal - jointly owned by Gannett, Knight Ridder and Tribune - which creates digital versions of offline advertising circulars.