News-Record.com

I have noticed several public record items have moved to the Web site. I wonder if I should give up my subscription and just use the Web.

I don't have time to sit in front of the computer reading the news. That's why I get you.

Those aren't all of them; I got some positive ones, too. But you get the idea.

We have moved local to the forefront. We've divided our county-wide community news publication into three even more intensely local newspapers. We have reduced our stock tables. We've moved a number of listings to our Web site. We focus on publishing useful community information, along with coverage of government and schools and all those institutional bodies that set policy and affect citizens. We are increasing efforts at online interactivity.

By making these changes -- changes that we think make us more relevant and valuable to citizens -- we have upset a good number of subscribers. Intellectually, we know the course we're taking is the right one. You can watch the market and technological changes and know it intuitively. We know we still have a ways to go, too.

But that doesn't make the explanation any easier when long-time readers call and want to know what their stocks are doing or more about the president's visit to Indonesia or who got divorced last week. They are our customers. They don't care so much about our attempts to change with the times and to go where people are. I understand that. Heck, it irritates me when one of my favorite restaurants changes its menu.

Right now, young readers think we're boring and slow while traditional readers -- at 54, I can hardly call them old -- think we're vital to their understanding of the world. We're working to become a vibrant, accessible, interactive place which offers a variety of news and information to read, watch, listen to and talk about. Navigating our way through that divide of different reader needs is exciting and challenging. And occasionally hard to explain.

On the other hand, at least we didn't try to publish O.J.