The Bivings group has released its annual report on how the top 100 U.S. newspapers are using the Internet. It has some heartening news on how newsrooms are embracing online work, but points to several challenges that one would think should be behind many large papers.

Among the findings:

• 58 per cent carry user-generated content, up from 24 per cent in 2007.
• 75 per cent permit comments on stories, up from 33 per cent a year earlier.
• 10 per cent had social network tools, up from five per cent, what the authors of the report called a surprisingly low number.
• The number of sites requiring registration to view content has declined, and all of the papers had RSS feeds.

The report’s summary is here with links to a PDF of the full version.