Mobile local ad network Verve Wireless just launched a new program that lets its local publisher partners (i.e. newspaper apps) extend their reach through a broader network of national publishers.

The idea is that they can get additional distribution by pushing their locally sold mobile campaigns out to national publishers that have available ad inventory.  These include the Associated Press, Weatherbug, Buzz Media, Glam Media, IMDB, SB Nation, and “hundreds of others.”

In addition to added distribution for the local guys, national players likewise benefit from advertisers that are locally sourced through the local publishers’ sales teams.  This presumably involves a revenue split between national and local publishers (and Verve of course).

And even though these publishers are more national in scope, the mobile ad placement itself can still happen in a geotargeted way. That becomes a function of the mobile user’s location.

That of course comes with a varied set of granularity and quality that’s usually based on the location data the publisher itself is able to achieve and pass along to the network’s ad serving engine.

As we discussed at the MLM SF, this is a bottleneck in the progress of mobile local ad targeting, but is improving. Mobile local ad networks like Verve, xAd, and WhereAds are working to establish standards for publisher supplied location data.

The goal there is to arrive at the promise of mobile local ad targeting, down to the lat/long level… rather than a glorified mobile version of IP targeting. The latter can be as broad as city level (and sometimes its not even the right city).

Network’s like Verve can have a leg up in dealing with this challenge because user’s of a given app (i.e. local newspaper app) can be self selected to exist within a specific geo. And better use of HTML5 and GPS access can refine that even further.

Meanwhile, program launches like Verve’s today pushes the ball forward in terms of facilitating awareness and interest in the benefits of mobile local ad targeting. We’ll keep a close eye  on it.