A startling 3 out of 4 top executives at top newspaper companies are reporting that they are missing out on major online advertisinig opportunities because publishers aren’t working well together.

According to a study conducted by the American Press Institute, approximately 72% of those surveyed believe online advertising opportunities are being lost. Roughly 54% of those surveyed believe that newspapers should form partnerships with major non newspaper resource websites such as Yahoo, Google, or MSN. I’ve even heard talks about newspaper companies integrating with social networking sites such as MySpace or Facebook to boost online ad potential.

Last year, the Newspaper Association of America (NAA) was formed to develop standard procedures for advertising in newspapers online and offline. The head of NAA’s marketing department commented that he is “just begining to understand what those standards should be.”

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