Paris - The World Association of Newspapers (WAN), an international trade group of 18,000 newpapers, announced on Monday that it has petitioned the U.S. Justice Department, European Commission and Competition Bureau of Canada to block Google's (NASD: GOOG) proposed deal to provide search advertising for Yahoo (NASD: YHOO).

"Of the very impressive $48 billion in online advertising revenue that Google has amassed since 2001, less than one third of that has been returned to online publishers, and a much tinier fraction has benefitted the news and content generation industries," WAN said in a statement.

"As such, most publishers are acutely aware that Google's ever-tightening grip on internet traffic, its unbridled use of online content, and its dominance in online advertising poses a very real threat to the continued viability of the independent content generation industry."

The group summed up its position in three points -- namely, that the deal with produce less competition, and in turn less revenue for newspapers, higher costs and greater dependence on a single company, Google, for nearly all of their online advertising business.

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