By Rex Rhoades,Executive Editor

We’ve begun 2006 with a host of changes at the Sun Journal, one of which you will see immediately in today’s paper – it’s two sections rather than four.

But we have also changed the way we operate in the Sun Journal newsroom to bring you more local news more quickly than ever before. And, we have other changes in store for the rest of the year.

But first things first.

Over the years, more and more of our advertising business has shifted toward Friday, Saturday and Sunday. As a result, those papers have grown larger, while papers earlier in the week should have gotten smaller.

For instance, we have been printing 28-page papers on Mondays and Tuesday, even though the advertising on those days only justified 26 pages.

With our press arrangement, a 26-page paper is only possible in two sections. Starting today, the Monday and Tuesday papers will now be two sections. The other papers during the week will not change.

Readers will find all of their local and community news now inside the first section of the paper. Sports will appear on the cover of the second section.

We have also made some staffing changes to begin the new year, all aimed at bringing you more local news more quickly. We will be updating our Web site during the day as news happens. We will also be shifting more personnel to covering local news more intensely than ever before.

Among the staffing changes:

• Heather McCarthy, a 30-year news employee of the Sun Journal, has become night news editor. She will work with city and regional reporters each evening on the stories they are writing for the next day’s paper. McCarthy will also bring a lifetime of knowledge and passion about Lewiston-Auburn and Western Maine to her job.

• Chris Williams has been named dayside police and courts reporter. Williams, who has been with the Sun Journal nine years, will be the first to bring you breaking news on the Sun Journal Web site, sunjournal.com, and in print.

• Bonnie Washuk will cover all forms of education, from elementary schools to colleges. Washuk has been with the Sun Journal 22 years, 15 of those covering the Augusta beat. She has been the parent of children in both public and parochial schools, and will look at education through the eyes of students, parents and teachers.

• Lindsay Tice has been named a day-side general assignment reporter. She will have the flexibility to pursue the hot story of the day and turn it around quickly for sunjournal.com and the next day’s paper. Tice has been with the Sun Journal five years.

• Doug Fletcher will remain a general assignment reporter, but he will also develop an outdoors sub-beat. He has many years of experience participating in outdoors sports, as well as nearly 40 years working for Maine and New Hampshire newspapers. He has been with the Sun Journal nine years.

• Mark LaFlamme will remain night-side police reporter, but he will now have twice as many opportunities per week to complain about his editors. His popular columns will now appear on Wednesdays and Sundays.

• David Farmer will move in mid-February to a special assignment beat covering government and politics. He came to the Sun Journal in 2001 after serving as editor of a paper in the Washington, D.C. suburbs and covering Congress for Roll Call.

• Reporters in Lewiston and in the region will also begin working a Saturday day shift to cover more newsworthy events on Saturdays for Sunday papers.

• Judy Meyer and Rex Rhoades will pick up additional duties writing editorials for the paper.

The staff at the Sun Journal is committed to bringing you timely and relevant local news and these changes will help us deliver the news that you want to read when you want to read it. If you have any questions or comments about these changes, please contact Meyer at jmeyer@sunjournal.com; 800-482-0759, ext. 2302, or 689-2902.

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