Poynter Online – the digital offering of journalism training centre the Poynter Institute – has announced that plans are underaway to launch its own network of online groups over the next few months.

According to the Poynter Evolution blog the groups will be ‘not exactly social networking, not exactly professional networking’, but tailored to Poynter Online’s audience. Content will come from users of the site as well as resources produced by Poynter staff.

The idea is to associate the groups with Poynter’s columns, blogs and seminars so that regular readers and contributors have a space for discussion. Other groups dedicated to broader issues in journalism, as well as those connecting journalists by geography, ‘beat’ and reporting interests will follow.

However, the blog post suggests that nothing about the groups has been finalised as yet, and Poynter’s existing group on Facebook – which has 5,848 members and counting – will be used to sound out ideas.