Blog networks are more exciting to advertisers these days than print publications, the The New York Times observed Monday, noting however that start-ups such as Curbed does not have the sales force necessary to sell local ads.

"I don't envy the people who knock on doors asking Bob's Dry Cleaner for ads," said Lockhart Steele, founder of Curbed, to which more big-city readers are turning for real estate, dining and shopping coverage than print newspapers, New York Convergence also reported.

The Village Voice, on the other hand, has built a sales force over five decades as a weekly newspaper, the Huffington Post also published. So the Village Voice is acting as a local ad network for Curbed, Mr. Steele said, selling local businesses ads for its Web site as well as the Curbed blogs and then sharing revenue.

In return, Village Voice gets to offer Curbed's articles and readers, in addition to its own, to lure advertisers, as first reported by Reuters in June.