Yahoo!'s recent announcement that it is looking to sell HotJobs worries members of the company's Newspaper Consortium, whose main reasons for teaming up with Yahoo! include services provided by the career site, paidContent reported.

Members of the Newspaper Consortium have already expressed fear and doubt regarding Yahoo! CEO Carol Bartz's commitment to the company's ties with the consortium and the affect that the departure of the company's president, Susan Decker, will have on the coalition.

The proposed sale of HotJobs is speculated to be a result of plummeting sales in the recruitment-ad sector, which are reported to have fallen by 5 percent last year. Nevertheless, the site saw a 146 percent increase in hits last year.

Rival HotJobs sites, such as Gannett's CareerBuilder and Monster.com, are also reaching out to newspapers by aiding online employment ads and building alternative networks with newspapers.