Well - I am taking this as a final no if for no other reason than I am tired of emailing with their CSRs:

Hi Damon,

In accepting Facebook's Terms of Use, you agree not to use the Service or Site to "register for a User account on behalf of an individual other than yourself, or register for a User account on behalf of any group or entity."
Unfortunately, we can no longer grant you access to this account.  This decision is final.

Please feel free to use the 'report' buttons located near most pieces of content on the site to report offensive material to Facebook from your personal account.  If you are not able to use the report buttons for any reason, please write to us at info@facebook.com with a link to the offensive material and a description of the problem.  We will then review this material and take the appropriate action.  Of course, these reports will be kept confidential.

Thanks for your understanding,
Customer Support Representative
Facebook

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I especially like the part where they let me know how easy it is to rat out any other newspapers or groups using Facebook against their terms of service.

So - we got caught, and obviously serveral (or more) other newspapers out there have not, yet. Fair enough.

However, Facebook's apparently strongly enforced TOS and hair-trigger bans should raise some questions for any newspapers using the service or considering using it. There is no guarantee how long you will get to keep your account, and since Facebook 'owns' all of the personal information you accumulate on the service (friends especially) you are at risk of wasting your efforts at any point.

I would say: worth it if your investment is low - but definitely don't depend on it as a long-term effort to reach out to your community.

I think this type of approach is will not serve Facebook very well in the long run.