The time has arrived for retrospect, realism and resolve. We look back at the year past to sigh relief it's over and glean some learnings from what didn't go as planned. The past year at the Valley Post newspaper has been chock-full of changes, from technology to staff to paper design.

We started out with getting much-needed new computers and office furniture in early spring. However, the paper continued to be created as it had been for a long time -- through the labor-intensive process known as "paste-up."

Stories and information were typed up on computers, then printed out, cut to fit and pasted onto paper marked with grids for alignment. This method was not only time-consuming, but made it difficult to make last minute changes.

That changed at the end of April when we got new software allowing us to create the paper entirely on computers, using what is known as a "full pagination" system. Naturally we all had a pretty steep learning curve at first, but the effort has been well worth it. Our capability for integrating advertising and news content is vastly improved as is the precision of placing items on the pages.

We also consolidated several papers into two -- The Happy Valley Times, Valley Times and the Post Adviser became the Valley Post and the South County Post Adviser Spotlight.

On the heels of technological advances at the Valley Post, we also changed the paper's appearance. We added color to pages -- photographs came alive and people appreciated the new dimension it brought to how the paper reflected their community. Beginning with the Nov. 1 issue, we continued evolving the paper's appearance, using more open or "white" space and adding a few design elements to make it easier to read. Throughout these changes, the paper has remained focused on providing coverage of local news and people. It is -- and will remain -- our mission.

The Valley Post also saw staffing changes over the year -- I joined the team at the a reporter and Andi Winters left as editor at the end of August; mid-year, one of our sales reps, George, left and was replaced by Judy Blunt; Ross Lilly, one of our two reporters, worked part-time during the fall and Paul Robeson filled in for him; Michael Woodward was hired as a reporter to fill my vacant position in November. Whew!

We've got one more exciting change around the corner in 2007: by mid-January we will have our Valley Post website functional and available to all. This will be one more means of continuing our conversation with the community. We hope the website will provide the opportunity for a fluid and interactive exchange of ideas, community events, information and opinions. It will become the "real-time" component of the newspaper, another form of publishing from us to you and from you to us.

In a world where global information is easy to come by, we know that our newspaper provides a unique commodity -- local news. And we intend to keep it that way. South County people and news is the reason we're here.