KRI, WPO JOIN A TRIBE.

Two leading newspaper companies have elected to join the rush of investors plunking money down on new Internet companies that specialize in social networking.

Knight Ridder and The Washington Post Co. last week said they had participated in a $6.3-million round of venture financing in Tribe Networks Inc. of San Francisco.

Tribe is leveraging the trend toward using computers for social networking -- best exemplified by the web site Friendster.com -- which is predicated upon research done in the 1970s showing that casual acquaintances provided more job leads than people in one's immediate social network.

Friendster says its aim is to match up people for relationships -- both platonic and romantic -- while Tribe's focus is on classified advertising.

"It's clear to us that Tribe is a strong, early leader in trusted person-to-person on-line classifieds," said Allen Morgan, a partner at the venture capital firm Mayfield. "We were impressed with the company's newspaper partnerships and the team's strategy and execution on multiple fronts."

The Silicon Valley-based Mayfield led the round of venture financing.

The Tribe.net system has been in beta testing since July 25, and more than 48,000 people have registered to be free users. Tribe plans to generate revenue by selling paid classified listings -- in employment, merchandise, personals, autos and real estate -- as well as targeted advertising.

"We have years of real-world experience on the front lines of the classifieds business," said Hilary Schneider, chief executive of Knight Ridder Digital. "By combining Tribe's social networking tools and listings with our strong, branded local market presence, it's a win for both of us."

The Post Co.'s Ralph Terkowitz said, "The social networking aspect of Tribe.net ensures user-created content and community, which translates to a lower cost of doing business. We think Tribe has the right formula for success."

Tribe Chief Executive and Founder Mark Pincus -- a veteran of Internet start-ups -- said, "The goal for Tribe is to become a sustainable, profitable, independent company in this new market space -- which I call Classifieds 2.0."

Please forgive my skepticism slipping away to cynicism, but it's unclear to me why you'd want to only buy stuff from "trusted" people. Certainly you don't want to get ripped off, but I don't know that you'd go so far as to join a community to avoid that. Also, Friendster has one big advantage over Tribe -- it's "all about the hookup" (as one member told Wired News). Dating. Sex. It's always hard to compete against sex.