Glenn Turner is the special projects editor at the Morning Sentinel and
Kennebec Journal. He's also sort of the "MacGyver" of our Web sites. If we
really want to do something in News but don't know how, Glenn often can
find a way.

He recently did a report for us on the number of visits to the home pages
for both of our Web sites, onlinesentinel.com and kjonline.com. The numbers
are heartening and seem to suggest we are doing things mostly right, led by
-- my opinion -- the breaking-news updates that we do throughout each day.
We started doing updates in February.

Here's what Glenn showed at onlinesentinel.com: Total visits to the Web
site increased 22 percent from January through June 2007, from 124,036
views in January to 150,963 in June.

Here's what he found at kjonline.com: Total monthly views to that site have
increased 60 percent during this six-month period, from 118,071 in January
to 189,096 in June. The May numbers at the KJ site were higher than June
because one particular story in May was linked by several "news of the
weird" type Web sites out there.

These numbers prove what I've been writing in my newspaper column off and
on: Yes, daily print circulation at the KJ and Sentinel is flat or slightly
decreasing. But local, urgent community journalism is alive, doing well and
will stick around for quite some time.

Combining these Web numbers with our respectable newspaper circulation
numbers, our journalism is being read by more people more often. Our
"reach" is growing and our newspapers already have one of the highest
"reach" numbers -- more than 80 percent of the people in our markets see
our newspapers over a seven-day period -- in the United States.

Eric Conrad
Executive Editor
Kennebec Journal and Morning Sentinel
Telephone: 207-621-5630

We lost a lovely white birch tree today in front of the Kennebec Journal, to improve access to the new Target and Lowe's shopping center going in behind our building.

As a reader said in our article about the retail complex yesterday: "I guess this is progress."

It is, we know, and Augusta needs it. But still, we feel an odd sense of loss today. Here's an appropriate poem by Robert Frost:

Birches

When I see birches bend to left and right
Across the lines of straighter darker trees,
I like to think some boy's been swinging them.
But swinging doesn't bend them down to stay.
Ice-storms do that. Often you must have seen them
Loaded with ice a sunny winter morning
After a rain. They click upon themselves
As the breeze rises, and turn many-colored
As the stir cracks and crazes their enamel.
Soon the sun's warmth makes them shed crystal shells
Shattering and avalanching on the snow-crust--
Such heaps of broken glass to sweep away
You'd think the inner dome of heaven had fallen.
They are dragged to the withered bracken by the load,
And they seem not to break; though once they are bowed
So low for long, they never right themselves:
You may see their trunks arching in the woods
Years afterwards, trailing their leaves on the ground
Like girls on hands and knees that throw their hair
Before them over their heads to dry in the sun.
But I was going to say when Truth broke in
With all her matter-of-fact about the ice-storm
(Now am I free to be poetical?)
I should prefer to have some boy bend them
As he went out and in to fetch the cows--
Some boy too far from town to learn baseball,
Whose only play was what he found himself,
Summer or winter, and could play alone.
One by one he subdued his father's trees
By riding them down over and over again
Until he took the stiffness out of them,
And not one but hung limp, not one was left
For him to conquer. He learned all there was
To learn about not launching out too soon
And so not carrying the tree away
Clear to the ground. He always kept his poise
To the top branches, climbing carefully
With the same pains you use to fill a cup
Up to the brim, and even above the brim.
Then he flung outward, feet first, with a swish,
Kicking his way down through the air to the ground.
So was I once myself a swinger of birches.
And so I dream of going back to be.
It's when I'm weary of considerations,
And life is too much like a pathless wood
Where your face burns and tickles with the cobwebs
Broken across it, and one eye is weeping
From a twig's having lashed across it open.
I'd like to get away from earth awhile
And then come back to it and begin over.
May no fate willfully misunderstand me
And half grant what I wish and snatch me away
Not to return. Earth's the right place for love:
I don't know where it's likely to go better.
I'd like to go by climbing a birch tree,
And climb black branches up a snow-white trunk
Toward heaven, till the tree could bear no more,
But dipped its top and set me down again.
That would be good both going and coming back.
One could do worse than be a swinger of birches.

--Robert Frost

We're being asked that question today. Why did we start our editorial series on hunger on the front page — in black and white? My 9-year-old daughter even asked me that over breakfast this morning. First, as I hope you can tell already, we put a whole lot of thought into this series. We were careful in how we selected the topic, the name, the team that would work on it, everything.

An editorial series with in-depth reporting and investigative elements is extremely rare in our industry. So we knew from day one that we were entering unfamiliar territory — unfamiliar even to major metropolitan newspapers. We definitely learned some things with this project, and Publisher John Christie and I have written, led and edited 60 projects or more between us.

Here is a brief Q&A on some unusual decisions we made along the way with our series, "For I was Hungry:"

1. Why did you start it on the front page Monday, knowing it was opinion content (to a degree) and knowing it would be on the editorial page in days two through seven?

Answer: We felt the topic was new to Maine readers, should be one of the state's highest priorities, and we knew this would be one of the Kennebec Journal's and Morning Sentinel's highest-profile projects this year.

2. Did you do more on the Web than in print?

Answer: Yes, we did. We added a "writer's journal" online that is sort of a blog, offering Naomi Schalit's personal insights into reporting this project. We've posted extra photos and charts online. And, readers are commenting online already. We will keep this series in a prominent location on our Web site for months to come.

3. The paper looked so different Monday. Why did you print this series in black and white when it was on the front page?

Answer: We knew it would be black-and-white on days two through seven, as it will appear on the editorial page, inside the paper. So we opted for a consistent look. Also, we hoped this series and Monday's newspaper in particular would look starkly different to home subscribers and on the newsstands exactly because it is black and white, whereas our photos and graphics are in color on A1 every day and so are our competitors' front pages.

Did it work?

You tell us.

This Monday, Opinion Page Editor Naomi Schalit delivers a seven-part editorial series -- a highly unusual and, we think, effective effort -- on hunger in Maine.

Naomi's series starts on Page A1 Monday, where Publisher John Christie also pens a column introducing the project. Then, Tuesday through next Sunday, it moves to the editorial page. We feel it's provocative, effective, surprising, poignant. You'll ultimately be the judge.

While the newspaper series is in itself one of the biggest undertakings we've ever done at the Kennebec Journal and Morning Sentinel, there will be online extras, too: a "writers journal," also written by Naomi; extra graphics and charts; and, of course, places where readers can comment on our work and interact with the staff.

While this is largely Naomi's work, the series is a team effort, as all newspaper special efforts are. Jim Evans, our photo chief, was the photographer on this project. Sharon Wood designed the package in print and did all the graphics. She also created the logo for the series, which is titled "For I Was Hungry." John and I helped Naomi with the direction of the editorials, as the three of us comprise our newspapers' editorial board. John and I also edited the series. Elizabeth Comeau and Glenn Turner handled the online duties. Skowhegan bureau reporter Alan Crowell and KJ City Editor Teresa Hineline filled in for Naomi on the opinion page when she took the time needed to report and write this major project.

We think you will be surprised and challenged by what you read. Don't miss it, starting Monday.

This is from Windham, way outside of our newspapers' areas, but I found
these photos so alluring that I decided to post them anyway. Enjoy.

No, not the newspaper industry. The Maine paper industry. You know, huge mills, lots of powerful equipment, cutting down trees — that kind of thing.

I want to call your attention to Colin Hickey's thorough look Sunday at how the Maine paper industry is worried about its older work force. Paper company managers also are concerned about their ability to recruit young Mainers to an industry that once provided stable and well-paying jobs to more than 17,000 people across the state, but now employs a little over half that number.

You can read Colin's story here: Graying workforce a problem for paper industry

Colin's sources did a nice job providing context to the paper industry's "challenges." They admit that the industry isn't what it once was in Maine but say it is not going out of business. They correctly point out that jobs in this industry still pay quite well by Maine standards.

Bully to Husson College, and I'm sure the Bangor area is glad to see one of
its schools expanding in a way that it matches Portland, home to Maine's
original school of law.

But I just can't help myself: Another law school? More lawyers in Maine?

Hey, I know a lot of lawyers. Some lawyers are friends of mine. As a
journalist for 25-plus years now, there have been more than a few times
when having a good lawyer or two on "my side" felt great. Absolutely great.
Our company is lucky to have Jonathan Piper and Sig Schutz of Preti,
Flaherty in Portland representing us.

But I've never sensed a big lawyer shortage in Maine. Dentists, doctors,
babysitters -- yes. But lawyers, no.

Speaking of labor shortages, we have a big package by Staff Writer Colin
Hickey coming out Sunday on the paper industry in Maine, and how it is
bracing for a worker shortage when many of its (older) employees retire in
the next decade.

My in-laws from New Hampshire visited this weekend and we all bantered abut the summer of 2007. Seemed to us the "early" summer has been two or so hot days, followed by cloudy, cool, semi-wet days of three, four, five at a stretch. Then another flirt of a summer day or two, only to return to musty and damp.

AccuWeather in Pennsylvania says no. They say we've been averaging about 1 degree below normal so far this summer, and preciptation also is below normal. So that's not dramatic. But I've been in Maine 12 years now, and my in-laws have been in New Hampshire about 50 -- it feels like a different summer, so far, to us.

I do, though, recall one summer living in Portland where the cool temperatures and ocean haze lingered over that city on a consistent basis well into July. Fortunately, August broke through and September (my favorite month in Maine) was crystal clear and glorious. But that summer was a long time coming.

The good news is the long-range forecast for Augusta after today is starting to show signs of summer sunshine on a consistent.

Here is a link to AccuWeather

Or do they?

Now state officials are testing some fur collected near Oakland, as the long-running mystery continues about whether full-sized mountain lions live in Maine. You can read the stories here: Cougar report probed

State probes report of big cat sighting

We've written two stories about mountain lion sightings in the Morning Sentinel territory, and published a photo of what sure looks to be a very large and "lion-ish" cat. But, state officials say they need scientific proof that an honest-to-gosh mountain lion is on the prowl in this area, before they certify this as fact. So far, there's been no hard evidence.

Some critics of the Department of Inland Fisheries & Wildlife and Wardens Service suggest the state diminishes these reports on purpose. But state officials say that's not true and that the state has nothing to gain by denying mountain lions are here, if indeed they are. I don't see a reason why state officials would deny this either — if they think it's true. Are we missing something?

In honor of Independence Day, and our founding fathers, here's the exact wording of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution:

"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press, or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances."

Do you ever think how fortunate we in the United States are? At our nation's most crucial time — when we were struggling for independence — we had a group of brilliant men all come together for a singular cause?

They were brave: Would you have signed your name to the Declaration of Independence? Would our top politicians be so bold today?

They were clairvoyant: The declaration and the Constitution hold up so well more than 200 years later.

They were united behind the dream of founding a new nation.

And they were here — in Boston, in Philadelphia, in Washington and New York.

We printed the Declaration of Independence as our editorial Wednesday. You
can read it here: In Congress, July 4,1776

Maybe it's just me, but I have a hard time doing sequel movies on the third, fourth and fifth go-round.

I rate "Die Hard" as one of the best movies I ever saw. I still remember watching it in the theater. I only went because I liked the TV show "Moonlighting" with Bruce Willis and Cybill Shepherd (which was on at the time), it was a slow night for me as a single, so I went to the theater and watched "Die Hard" on a whim. I was blown away.

But now the third sequel is out and I'm just not motivated by it. I'd rather Willis do another movie like "The Sixth Sense", actually. I really liked that movie, too, but it was a gimmick movie with a surprise ending and once you see a movie like that, it isn't nearly as good the second time.

Back to my opening line. I loved "Rocky" and "Rocky II" as well, but didn't care to see Rocky (whatever we're on now). I won't even rent it, I don't think. I watched the first three Star Wars movies but had no interest in the second trilogy. Am I alone on this? I guess so, because the sequels sure keep coming.

What a weekend of news. Talk about variety.

The Saturday Morning Sentinel was one of the strongest newspapers we've had this year. The A1 lineup included: A story of a family worried about a missing woman; a moose-motorcycle accident that claimed the life of a Maine
man (Maine's fourth moose-motorist fatality this year); a mayoral budget veto in Waterville; a story about rural Maine Internet service; and a feature previewing the Winslow July 4 celebration, which is one of the area's largest.

We talk a lot about story "mix" on the front page, hoping for a combination of hard-news stories, people features, issues, crime and government coverage. That's what Sentinel readers got Saturday.

Then, on Sunday and Monday, we used Portland Press Herald stories to "cover" a truly historic event happening right now in Kennebunkport, where President Bush, former President Bush and Russia's Vladimir Putin are gathering to mend U.S.-Russian relations, and perhaps reach some agreements. No matter how you feel about the Bush Administration, this is a major news story for Maine.

Today, we had an intriguing story by Craig Crosby about a study ascertaining what happens when trout and other fish swallow rubber worms used in fishing. (Turns out, not much. They seem to stay in the fishes' bellies, perhaps forever.) I must say I winced a little at seeing the
"detail" (up-close) photo, in living color, of a disemboweled fish on the front page of the Sentinel this morning.

Interestingly, I've not received an e-mail or phone call objecting to the somewhat-graphic photo. Perhaps people read the story, which was thoughtfully done, and realized that the photo was important to illustrate the story. Or perhaps in Central Maine people are used to catching, handling and preparing fish for a cookout or pan fry.

If you missed it, you can read Craig's fish story here: Mystery of the Missing Lure