Newspapers have been dying for some time; and for nearly as long internet advertising gurus have been saying that the titans of old could easily segue into the digital age if they just made one minor adjustment: refocus their content with a hyper-local angle. Now, it seems the results from one early local experiment are in, and they aren't encouraging.

Chronicling the misadventures of LoudounExtra.com -- a local news website run by the Washington Post -- The Wall Street Journal reported that the year-old venture has thus far proved to be a flop.

In the year since its launch, LoudounExtra has struggled to find its audience in one of the most affluent and fastest-growing counties in Virginia. The site has also lost its chief architect and the team of engineers that helped to build LoudounExtra.

But despite the setbacks, officials at the Washington Post say they aren't ready to give up on local just yet. And perhaps for good reason. According to Shawn Riegsecker, CEO of Centro, newspapers still have one thing that many web startups lack -- name brand recognition.

Centro, which is one of many firms looking to use the web's powerful technology to connect brand advertisers with local newspapers, has been making the case that salvation -- and perhaps even greater revenues -- could be just around the corner. While that may sound like wishful thinking, even internet heavyweights like Yahoo are betting that the web's ad serving capabilities could eventually be a boon for newspapers, even if the initial results are somewhat disappointing. For that reason, Yahoo has been keen to build a network of newspaper publishers, which grew to nearly 800-strong earlier this week.