Halifax Evening Courier launches 'experimental' social networking site

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Johnston Press title, the Halifax Evening Courier, has launched a social networking site as part of a healthy living campaign. The Join Our Club community , which is integrated with campaign in the Courier's print edition, was launched in early January using social networking technology firm Kick Apps .

The platform allows readers and community groups to upload multimedia content, blog posts and comments to the site, which currently has around 100 members.

While the Courier already has a presence on Facebook , John Kenealy, deputy editor of the Courier, told Journalism.co.uk that the paper wanted to build a platform to develop the reader interaction already taking place on its own site.

There is already a strong online reader community around the Courier's content, which contributes photos and comments, said Kenealy. Introducing a social networking element will allow users to directly upload their information overcoming the existing gap between submission and publication, he added.

The site is also being used as a test run for other social networking plans at Johnston Press and, if successful, the Kick Apps platform could be used for other areas of the Courier's website, Kenealy added.

"The idea is to look at how this is going and then to see how it can expand. We are checking how many people get involved and how many hits it gets. The first signs are encouraging. If it takes off a lot of people will look at it through our group," he said.

"That site [Join Our Club] will be attractive in two or more months time, because of the amount of information that it will hold."

The paper has invited some community groups to participate, but hopes more will join independently as the site grows, he added.