Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO) execs have always been more than a little circumspect when it comes to discussing how well the 800-member Yahoo Newspaper Consortium is doing. But AdAge’s Nat Ives has done some math and estimates that the alliance has sold $50 million in Yahoo ad inventory, with about “several million” dollars in sales being added each week. And although Yahoo doesn’t like to provide figures, since last fall, a number of consortium members have been singing its praises, especially since Yahoo began rolling out its APT ad distribution and targeting system for its newspaper partners earlier this year. EW Scripps (NYSE: SSP) has praised the program, saying its contributed a 30 percent gain in online ad revenues in Q1, or roughly $800,000.

SEE ALSO: Possible HotJobs Sale Raises Questions For Yahoo Newspaper Partners

And while Cox Newspapers’ Atlanta Journal Constitution wasn’t able to make much of its own internal targeting efforts over the past five years due to a lack of inventory, by adding Yahoo’s inventory to the mix, the paper was able to expand its coverage area and attract telecom and fast food marketers that typically concentrated on billboards, not newspapers. In addition to the hope APT has provided, as we noted earlier, McClatchy (NYSE: MNI) plans to work with Yahoo on offering “rate incentives” to advertisers to encourage them to purchase ad inventory more regularly.

While all this is well and good, some newspaper consortium members I’ve spoken to are a little concerned that Yahoo may be considering a sale of its HotJobs property. And though even online help wanteds have been down across the board due to the economy, many members have been counting on it to help offset the declines.