USATODAY has relaunched its website in the form of a social media community. It is not only sporting a more Web 2.0 look, but the site is chock full of community features that push it far beyond what I've seen other major publications doing online.

There is voting on every article in the style of digg, driving story lists based on popularity. The more votes, the higher a story rises. In addition, readers can comment on every story -- something washingtonpost.com rolled out late last year -- and each reader gets a personal page that aggregates his or her comments, a personal blog and other community-based features.

The newspaper explains in a post of its own:

While we've refined the design, we've also expanded the journalistic mission: Our ambition is to help readers quickly and easily make sense of the world around them by giving them a wider view of the news of the day and connecting them with other readers who can contribute to their understanding of events.

We'll do that through a combination of original reporting, tracking what others are reporting, improved use of technology and by engaging you more directly in the news than ever before.

Quite clearly, this is an effort to compete directly with online news sources like digg, newsvine.com and Google News that threaten all major media from a business perspective. However, for communicators it's a very interesting development. And one that, if it continues, offers fascinating possibilities.

For example, say a new story comes out about your company, one that is somewhat negative or includes errors. On USATODAY's new site, the company could respond immediately with a comment and begin a conversation. Same thing for politics. I can already envision grassroots campaigns to get readers to recommend stories about particular candidates to increase their visibility.

This is clearly a trend worth watching -- and thinking about. By the way, nice work USATODAY. Personally, I like it a lot.

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