According to this AdvertisingAge article, New York-based Interpublic Group has developed a new analytical tool that lets advertisers buy print ads at a sub-ZIP code level for better targeting of consumers. The tool allows the company’s clients - including Home Depot, Sears and Bridgestone - to focus on smaller metropolitan areas through a combination of “newspaper zoned editions, preprint inserts, direct mail, shoppers and other publications” instead of having to buy ads in large nation-wide newspapers.

Might that potentially be more bad news for slumping newspapers, a mass medium that has traditionally benefited from the adage that advertisers know half their ad buys are wasted, just not which half?

Not so, said [NSA Media Chief Development Officer] Mr. Desens. He cited the case of a mid-sized local restaurant chain that might not be able to afford to regularly blanket an entire metro area with ads. “If you’ve got eight locations, you now have the capability to advertise in just these eight neighborhoods,” he said, suggesting marketers would then advertise more. “But there may be a proportion of big clients who say, ‘I can now be more efficient so I can put some of the money back in my pocket.’”

The AdAge article lets this tool look like a great breakthrough in marketing, but isn’t it what has been possible on the Internet for a long time? Sure, this new tool can save companies money by assisting them with their newspaper ad placements… But take a look at Seattle-based Marchex (NASDAQ: MCHX) or at other media companies currently exploring the vast possibilities of local content networks and local search. The Internet has made it easier than ever before to only target consumers in a very specific area anywhere in the world. In addition, it’s even possible to only display ads that these consumers are more likely to be interested in seeing by taking into account their past purchases, user account settings as well as the age, sex and job of every single user of that particular service.

Local content and search will be huge on the Internet in a very short time and it will help advertisers to place ads more efficiently. Take geographic domain names as another example, if you will. A developed geo-domain such as NewYork.info, Lowell.com or Houston.com receives lots of targeted type-ins every day in addition to visits from search engines and external links. Each of these domain names potentially is a local newspaper!

Interpublic Group’s analytical tool might be a useful invention that will come in handy for advertisers buying newspaper ads, but it doesn’t change anything of the fact that the advertising dollars are migrating from the traditional media to the Internet and it will certainly not save newspapers that cannot successfully handle the shift from offline to online. Wise advertisers will spend more of their advertising budgets on targeted online ads sooner than later.