• by Wendy Davis , Staff Writer @wendyndavis, March 5, 2007

Aiming to make its Web site more interactive, USA Today has redesigned its site to feature user-created material far more prominently than before.

"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," the paper stated in an editor's note explaining the redesign.

The revamped site, which went live Saturday, enables reader comments on each story and solicits users' input in the form of photos and movie reviews. USA Today also is aping Digg, the new Netscape and other social news sites that allow readers to determine which stories are most important.

USA Today's new site is just one example of the various ways traditional media companies are experimenting by adding Web 2.0-ish features.

Reuters also is planning to add social features to its consumer site in a bid to become, in the words of chief executive Tom Glocer, a "MySpace for the financial services community," according to the U.K. Guardian.

"It won't have the latest hot videos and the 'why I am into Metallica and the Arctic Monkeys' blogs," Glocer told the Guardian. "Instead we are going to give our financial services users the ability to post their research or if they are traders, their trading models."