Source: Vancouver Province

Canwest Global Communications Corp. yesterday announced it has formed a partnership with a U.S. provider of digital advertising solutions that makes Canwest the exclusive provider of its products and services in Canada.

Canwest has teamed up with Chicago-based ShopLocal, which provides services to retailers such as Canadian Tire, Mark's Work Wearhouse and Toys "R" Us. ShopLocal's services transfer print advertising to a digital format that can be used online or for in-store promotions.

"The most exciting element of this partnership is that it delivers great benefit to both retailers and consumers," Derek Mah, general manager for online classifieds and retail with Canwest Digital Media, said.

"Canwest can now offer Canadian advertisers this exceptionally effective tool to get local deals to local markets through multi-channel distribution."

ShopLocal's Canadian website will post content from its online flyers known as SmartCirculars as well as from display ads placed in Canwest newspapers across Canada.

It will be searchable by shoppers at Canada.com and Canwest newspaper websites, as well as external sites such as Facebook, MySpace, Lycos and Local.com.

© Vancouver Province