Here's the press release found through the NSK News Bulletin Online:

A total of 47 newspaper companies on Sept. 7 announced the establishment of a central company that is to operate a joint Web site featuring domestic and overseas news and Japanese community information on tourism, restaurants and other subjects.

Representatives of the participating companies, mostly Japanese local newspapers, gathered in Tokyo to set up the new firm, “Zenkoku Shimbun Net” (the All-Japan Newspaper Network) in September. Their joint Web site will open by the year-end.

The planned portal site will allow users to take a look at news and community-based information from the participating local newspapers, while serving as a “hub” linked to the Web sites of the participating newspapers.

The new Web site will also be equipped with a function to collect related news on any chosen issue or topic from the Web sites of all the participating newspapers. It will also provide video news. The Web-operating firm will earn funds from advertisements.

The 47 newspapers will invest in the operating firm, and four other media companies will participate as content providers. Kyodo News Agency will provide domestic and overseas news to the new Web site.

Kenichiro Hayashi, a former general manager of digital business at Kyodo News Agency, will be the president of the operating firm.

Hayashi called the project an epoch-making undertaking in uniting rival local and regional newspapers for a common purpose. The new Web site is expected to increase the number of users of Web sites run by the participating local newspapers and thereby boost their revenues.

Hayashi said that the enrichment of Web content and the sales effort to reach the “long tail” of Internet advertising will be the key to success for the new common-effort Web site.

Source: NSK News Bulletin Online