Starting Monday, and for the next three weeks, I will fill in as city editor of the Morning Sentinel and will work primarily out of that office. I am really looking forward to filling in as we search for a new city editor there. Kennebec Journal City Editor Tarcy Hineline will fill in at Waterville for three weeks after I'm done.

The phrase "city editor," which many newspapers use, is bit of a misnomer. The nine Sentinel news reporters who report to the city editor cover much more than Waterville. They cover more than 25 towns and cities in upper Kennebec, Somerset and Franklin counties. They include bureau reporters in Skowhegan, Farmington and Pittsfield.

And Sentinel reporters cover much more than local government and community news. Alan Crowell of the Skowhegan bureau, for example, covers wind-power and the Plum Creek development project for us. Colin Hickey and Crowell have been working hard on a series on the baby boom generation which will publish this month or next.

At the Morning Sentinel and Kennebec Journal, the city editors play key roles in determining what gets covered, what doesn't (we can't be everywhere) and how it's presented and written. There is no managing editor at our newspapers so the city editors report directly to me. Since my job as executive editor is broader than just local news — the Sports and Features staffs report to me, as do the photographers, copy editors and Web site editors — you can see how much influence city editors have on what local news you read.

From late 1995 to early 1998, I was the city editor at the Portland Press Herald/Maine Sunday Telegram. I loved that job. I got indoctrinated in a big way in early 1996 when an oil tanker hit the Million Dollar Bridge in South Portland and spilled hundreds of thousands of gallons of heating oil in the Fore River estuary. I remain very proud of the Portland newspaper's coverage of that accident. The newspaper hustled and investigated causes of the accident. Federal laws about drug and alcohol testing for ocean pilots changed as a result.

So, if you try to reach me in the next few weeks and notice a slight delay, now you know why. I'll be busy in Waterville. And I'll be smiling.