As you already know, because you are reading the editorial on page 6 instead of page 4, we are making some big changes at The Lincoln County News this week.
With twice the color pages available in the front section due to a major upgrade to our press (see the front page for details), we have shuffled the order of pages in the front section to use this additional color strategically.
Until last week, there were four color pages in the standard 16-page front section: 1, 3, 14, and 16. Now we have eight: 1-4 and 13-16.
Wiscasset was the only town to have its own color page, perhaps appropriate because it is the county seat. Now the Bristol Area, Twin Villages, Waldoboro, and Wiscasset will each have a color page.
This required some changes. The Twin Villages page has moved from page 5 to page 2. Wiscasset will stay on page 3. The Waldoboro page has moved from page 7 to page 4.
Opinion – the editorial and letters to the editor, as well as “From the Legislature” columns and guest commentaries, will move from page 4 to pages 6 and 7.
The opinion page only occasionally contains a photo or two, so it doesn’t make sense to use a color page.
The move comes with a significant benefit: we now have two pages for opinion. Most of the year we receive far too many letters to squeeze onto one page. In the past we would direct you elsewhere in the paper to find the rest. Now you don’t even have to turn the page – you can find more letters on the page facing this one.
We also plan to run some of our regular opinion columns, like Robert E. Regut’s “Just a Thought” and Larry Sidelinger’s “Truckin’ in America,” on the opinion pages instead of spread unpredictably throughout the rest of the newspaper.
The obituaries have moved from 12 and 13 to 10 and 11.
The “jumps” page, where you can find the rest of the articles that begin on the front page, is now 12 instead of 10.
The Bristol Area page has moved from page 9 to page 13, again to take advantage of the color now available there.
Sports will stay in the same place, pages 14 and 15, now in full color.
It’s a lot of change for one week, and we hope you will be patient with us as we fine-tune our system to adjust to these changes ourselves.
We welcome your feedback. Contact us at 563-3171, info@lcnme.com, or P.O. Box 36, Damariscotta, ME 04543. Or stop by the office at 116 Mills Road in Newcastle.
In the past year, perhaps the most visible change at The Lincoln County News has been our new website at lcnme.com.
While we are proud of our new website and continue to explore and embrace developments in technology, the print edition remains our marquee product.
The recent upgrade to the press represents a significant investment in the print edition, and a long-term commitment to being the only newspaper locally owned and printed in Lincoln County.
