Johnston Press is aiming to boost its online offerings by signing a deal with the UK's Highway's Agency to provide real-time traffic and travel data to its regional newspaper Web sites, journalism.co.uk reported.

The deal will allow the UK regional publisher's 323 Web sites to find a centralised content source that can be segmented and used at a local level, Mark Woodward, group editorial content manager, told Journalism.co.uk.

To implement the scheme, live footage from the Highways Agency's traffic cameras have been plotted onto a Google map, with each pinpoint refreshed every 30 seconds.

Johnston Press is also exploring other ways of making its Web sites more interactive, and has launched its first social networking trial site with the Halifax Evening Courier, according to journalism.co.uk.