OK, on one hand, I suppose this is positive news. A small town newspaper in Kentucky has gotten the social media bug and is now offering an online community site I guess. Trouble is, when you go there you have to subscribe to see it. I don't know about you, but I'm reluctant these days to sign up for anything. I don't want to be bothered, and I don't want to be bothered if you know what I mean.

No time today to write long (applause being heard in the background). Here's the news item announcing this breakthrough. Thanks to Lauren Bell of DM News.

I thought this was a funny line in the report:

“We wanted the social-networking portion to be there because we wanted to be on the ground floor of what we saw was an emerging trend in the industry,” said Dan Stahl, Web publisher for the Kentucky New Era.

The ground floor of an emerging trend?

Here's a link to the newspaper online.