The Web 2.0 era increasingly relies on submissions of content from non-professionals and interaction between the masses. Community newspapers work within a changing media market and one where the audience moves to digital consumption while economics greatly favor print. This study seeks to examine how community newspaper websites choose to engage in gatekeeping as it relates to user-generated content. It also seeks to learn the manner in which those who operate these sites interact with the public. This dissertation uses two content analyses to separately gauge the publication of UGC and interaction on community newspaper websites. Furthermore, the researcher seeks through survey to learn the attitudes of those who operate community newspaper websites toward both the publication of UGC and where they believed it was important to interact with the public. The study suggests there may be no easy answers in terms of technology for getting the public to contribute UGC. Simply making multiple requests for contributions, providing numerous manners for the public to submit, or even offering a special location on the web for all submitted content does not seem enough to convince the public to contribute more content. However, this dissertation indicated direct interaction does appear to increase the number of comments a site receives and the attitudes of managers UGC and interactivity also may influence public actions in terms of participation.