Better Geotargeting Through Newspapers?

So says this AdAge piece:

A media-buying firm claims to have cracked the code on buying print ads at a sub-ZIP code level. Interpublic Group of Cos.-owned Newspaper Services of America has developed an analytical tool to help clients — which include Home Depot, Sears, CVS and Bridgestone — target consumers through a narrower geographic lens than has been previously available.

The tool lets big advertisers who formerly leaned on major newspapers to blanket a metropolitan area focus more accurately on individual neighborhoods in an attempt to zone in on the areas where its most-desired customers reside through a combination of newspaper zoned editions, preprint inserts, direct mail, shoppers and other publications, NSA Media Chief Development Officer Craig Desens said in an interview.

On second glance this is only about print, not online. Silly me.

Better and more accurate local online targeting is definitely something that marketers and the industry generally are hungry for. The technology exists today but there are “political” challenges in getting it implemented.