Johnston Press expects to complete a rollout of an online family announcements service across all of its 281 newspaper websites by the end of this year.

Readers still book birth, marriage or death notices with their newspaper in the usual way but will have the added option of an interactive, personalised web page similar to social networking sites MySpace or Facebook.

Pictures and messages can be uploaded by users to the page which is accessible via the newspaper's corresponding website.

Head of digital publishing, John Bradshaw, said: "We are delighted to team up with iAnnounce to provide this interactive and innovative service for all our customers placing birth, marriage and death notices online.

"The service adds a whole new dimension to traditional notices placed within our publications and allows people to share memories, pictures and messages relating to their loved ones with a growing generation of new consumers using our websites."

Web announcements company iAnnounce provides the online platform for the pages and received the green light for rollout in July after a trial on the Portsmouth News website www.portsmouthtoday.co.uk.

The service is live on around 220 Johnston newspaper websites so far. At some publishing centres, more than 60 per cent of people who place notices opt for the online extra.