Subscription size doesn’t matter when it comes to becoming more social on the Web.

Case in point: the (Hopkinsville) Kentucky New Era, which became even more of a sounding board for its community when it added social media services from ThePort Network Inc.

The new features allowed the 12,000-subscriber evening newspaper to let readers post comments on stories, start blogs, upload video and collect local and national news based on their particular interest.

“We think it’s going great,” said Daniel Stahl, the paper’s Web site manager. Some 250 people have signed up to access the site’s features.

The Kentucky New Era’s Web site offers a variety of social networking features.
 

The southwestern Kentucky paper added the options to its site to keep pace with consumer demands for interactivity, Stahl said.

“The traditional paradigm of newspapers, the lecture mode where newspapers produce a printed product and people just read the news, is officially gone,” he said. “We are no longer in lecture mode, but in conversation mode.”

To that end, the New Era tapped such ThePort features as the ability to let users arrange news stories on pages in the way they want to view them, Stahl said.
 

Personalization

“Through RSS feeds, readers can build personalized Web pages based on their favorite interests, hobbies, sports, cooking, politics and news stories,” he said.

Stahl said the level of intensity readers bring to the site when they respond to a story surprises him.

“It is a good thing because it opens up a level of dialogue that we haven’t seen with the traditional newspaper,” he said.

Readers can leave comments to any story on the Web site as registered or anonymous users.

“Even if they don’t want to build a profile and want to make a comment from time-to-time  that’s what ThePort offers,” he said. “You don’t have to jump in with both feet. You can just stick a toe in the water and be part of the community.”

Atlanta-based ThePort introduced its social networking software in 2005. In addition to the Kentucky New Era, the company’s software is also used by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution as well as a number of NFL teams.

Meantime, The Journal Times in Racine, Wis., rolled out its ThePort-anchored social networking site last month.

The Journal Times created six different neighborhood sites covering various parts of the Racine community. Content created by The Journal Times staff is loaded onto the specific neighborhood site and users are given the option to contribute their own comments and author their own blogs.