Bakersfield Californian President and CEO Richard Beene says smaller advertisers will be receiving more and more focus by the independently owned paper — something that many newspapers say, but few really do much about.

In a note to employees discussing recent company layoffs, published by LA Observed, Beene says the newspaper’s New Business Development team is “focused on smaller advertisers that are clearly our future. This group is scoring success after success and I only see this becoming a larger and more important part of our sales efforts.”

Beene also says that “our partnership with Yahoo is beginning to pay important dividends. We see this as a way to leverage our combined strengths to grow both revenue and market share and give us a better foothold in the digital sales arena.”