A Press and Tower survey of major metro dailies in the Tri-state area shows that of the seven newspaper websites reviewed, four allow comments and just three do not. GoErie.com/Erie Times-News is joined by the websites of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, and Pittsburgh Tribune-Review with a moratorium on reader comments.

However, the newspapers we looked at outside of the Commonwealth of  Pennsylvania all allowed reader comments. The breakdown:

• Erie: Erie Times-News – GoErie.com
  • No comments
  • Share story tools by AddThis.com
• Akron: Akron Beacon Journal – Ohio.com
  • Comments by registered users
  • Share story tools by AddThis.com
• Buffalo: Buffalo News – Buffalonews.com
  • Comments by registered users
  • Story ratings by registered users
  • Share story tools by AddThis.com
• Cleveland: The Plain Dealer – Cleveland.com
  • Comments by registered users
  • Story recommendations by registered users
  • Custom share story tools
  • Extensive social networking tools that allow you to create a profile with likes, recommendations, etc.
• Pittsburgh: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette – Post-gazette.com
  • No comments
  • Custom share story tools
• Pittsburgh: Pittsburgh Tribune-Review – Pittsburghlive.com
  • No comments
  • Custom share story tools
• Youngstown: Youngstown Vindicator – Vindy.com
  • Comments by registered users
  • Share story tools by AddThis.com

Finally, I think its funny that some of the sites don’t include Twitter as a top sharing tool. To me, Facebook and Twitter are the two social networking sites where I’ll find out about a story, as opposed to StumbleUpon or Digg.