The Herald, a local daily newspaper in Plymouth, UK has launched its own social networking site after reaching its limit of 5000 friends on Facebook. The platform is accessible via the publication's main site and "allows users to join, set up a profile, make friends, chat, upload video, images, audio and blogs and rate each other's contributions."

Named iHerald, the platform attracted 200 users in its first month, and a photo of a seal trapped in illegal netting just off the Plymouth coast uploaded by one of its users provided the Herald with a full page story. The Herald's site is called thisisplymouth and aims not to duplicate its print content - and the variety of contributors on iHerald allows them to take this even further. Web editor Neil Shaw said that "users love the opportunity to network on a site which has a Plymouth focus - it has attracted users from across the city as well as ex-pats as far away as Canada and Thailand."

Source: Press Gazette