In a world of free classifieds, newspapers are struggling to find a differentiating factor that local businesses value enough to pay for.  Yext, a startup based in New York City, may have found a way to overcome that threshold by developing an advertising system that enables local businesses to pay only for calls that result in business.  

Call it praising with faint damnation. These days, when it comes to the economy, good news seems to mean getting worse more slowly. And while a lot of publishing news is like this, hidden among the gloom are some actual signs of hope.

Publishers tend to approach online directories with a path to least resistance mindset: create a yellow pages-like directory specific to their niche, sell listings to vendors in that space, and publish them. They give little thought to improving either the advertiser or the user experience – and then get frustrated when the products don’t meet their revenue goals.

As announced here in this very space, eMediaVitals is beginning a series of blog posts about revenue models for online publishing.

However we are far from being the first one to the scene. Below is a list of sites listing revenue models. Too meta for you? Don’t worry, just click around below and don’t be blinded by your newfound visions of dollar signs.