I will be on vacation for a few days but wanted to tell you about some major training opportunities coming up for our staff — training that will change our newspapers, for the better, very soon.

On Monday, Joel Rawson, executive editor of the Providence Journal, will lead reporting workshops at the Morning Sentinel and Kennebec Journal newsrooms.

Rawson is among the most prominent editors in the U.S. and New England. He is an expert on conversational writing, multi-source reporting and helping journalists surprise readers more often, with different stories and less "government process."

Then, from Feb. 27-29, Indiana newspaper designer Jennifer George Palilonis will visit as we prepare to dramatically change the appearance of our newspapers.

We will introduce more color, bigger headlines and a cleaner, easier-to-navigate newspaper. Don't worry: We're not shrinking anything. The type size in our articles is definitely NOT changing. Our sports agate, stocks and other pages are not being touched either.

These design changes actually represent a major project, however, one we've been working on for roughly six months.

I will write more about these changes next week, as they become imminent. But I wanted to give you an early "heads-up" about them now.