By Josefina Loza And Erin Chan

AASFE Diversity Fellows

They’re hookin’ up, they’re snagging sales, they’re sharing mommy gossip and they’re getting buzzed (musically, that is).

They’re readers who have found their ways to four innovative web sites shepherded by newspapers.

Four journalists who managed those sites spoke at a panel Thursday on “Building Communities on the Web.”  Here are those sites and how they foster new relationships betweens papers and their readers — including those who have never touched the print editions.

Metromix, at www.metromix.com is the Chicago Tribune’s entertainment Web site where locals go to learn more about the city’s 9,000 bars, restaurants and nightclubs. Singles learn the best places to go to score a date.

Innovative features that have generated enormous responses include reader review panels — the most recent panel generated 10,000 applications, according to Matt McGuire, who produces the site — a kind of street team that dishes on the hottest spots in the Windy City.

Two other hip social groups formed on the site: the Margarita Girls and the Alfresco Flirts.

            Recently bought by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, www.milwaukeemoms.com has become an all-purpose training and information hub for parents and caregivers of kids ages 0-6.

            Moms and dads can seek parental advice, schedule play dates for their kids and play dates for themselves (there’s a margarita group here, too, called “Margarita Moms”).

            There’s wine, there’s food and there’s celebrity style. The shopping buzz blog at The Dallas Morning News, www.shopping.beloblog.com, gives readers a guide to hot local retail, but it also covers big events like New York’s Fashion Week.

            Polls like “Love it or leave it”, give readers chances to critique a different celebrity’s outfit each week.

            Marian Liu, the pop music critic at the San Jose Mercury News, gives readers the lowdown on national music acts, as well as the hottest bands and emcees in the Bay Area.

            She blogs on the site, www.mercextra.com/mliu, and posts plenty of backstage videos, too. Liu also has a series of wide-ranging podcasts (www.mercextra.com/listen) encompass gaming to overseas artists like Vietnamese pop singer Ngoc Anh and composer Phu Quang, who perform in America for the first time on Saturday.