Our Kennebec Journal Web site has just won three significant awards, and we wanted to share the news with you. The New England Associated Press News Executives Association last week said the Kennebec Journal/MaineToday site was the best overall site in New England for a newspaper with daily circulation under 40,000. That's first place, overall, for daily newspapers in our size category. We are very pleased.

Also, the KJ site won first place for best Sports pages online, and for how we present the news at our site ("News Presentation" was the name of the category).

One judge wrote that our site, "Offers the best use of rollover detail on the top menu I've seen anywhere, plus it offers a full package of updated news, clean organization and Web-only features."

For News Presentation, one judge mentioned our treatment of the "For I Was Hungry" project as a high point at our Web site. The judge also noted our site, "Offers breaking news, even on weekends, as well as well-packaged feature stories with multimedia and reader-involvement tools."

While the kjonline.com site won these awards, it is important to note that the Morning Sentinel staff shares in these. Many of the news stories and Web updates that we do every day are shared among both of our sites (kjonline.com and onlinesentinel.com), and written by reporters at both the Sentinel and KJ. Two of the newsroom employees behind this are: Elizabeth Comeau, in the KJ newsroom; and Glenn Turner at the Morning Sentinel.

These awards are a credit to our colleagues at MaineToday in Portland, too. They set up much of our current home-page design and provided tools and training that we needed to do some of the things that the NEAPNEA judges liked.

And they're a credit to our readers and our communities. Everything we write and take photos of involves you and this beautiful, intriguing area that we call home.

Although we are proud of this accomplishment, that doesn't mean your feedback -- critical, neutral, positive, whatever -- should stop. To the contrary, we are really just beginning to hit our stride online. Now is a great time to tell us what you'd like to see in the future.

So, I'm back from a week's vacation. With kids 9 and 6, that means I actually read 2.5 books, something that won't happen now that I'm back working for another six months or so.

I am/was a huge Warren Zevon (the late, great...) rock music fan. My wife bought me the biography about Zevon, written by his ex-wife, for my birthday in April. I read it last week. I couldn't put it down. Crystal Zevon, a Vermont-er, interviewed more than 80 people in writing this (including Bruce Springsteen, Billy Bob Thornton, Jackson Browne and more). I'm sure it was accurate.

And, man, was I disappointed.

I've been a fan for a long time. I saw Zevon in concert four times, all in Florida (he also played the former Raoul's in Portland, in the 1990s). Since his shows were FAR less than stadium-type shows, I was close to Zevon during all four shows, who was just a huge talent. At one show, in Miami, my date and I lucked into VIP, down-front table seats maybe 5-8 feet from The Genius.

But, as it turns out, according to Crystal, Warren Zevon and Bob Crane (Hogan's Heroes) apparently were soul mates. I'll leave that to your imagination. And the Zevon sex-and-drug escapades didn't stop there. I don't want to go on and on, and I will continue to be in awe of Zevon's music, but...

The Kennebec Journal is sending sports writer Travis Lazarczyk to Andalusia, Ala., this weekend to cover the Augusta Babe Ruth team as it pursues a national title. Augusta's first game is Friday morning, but Travis won't catch up with the team until Sunday, in time for its second game. He will stay in Alabama at least through Wednesday -- and beyond, if our local boys keep winning.

You don't have to look far to see how this team has attracted strong community interest. Signs are up, minivans are spray painted with players' numbers, buses are being loaded. Ten teams from around the nation are trying to win the title, so just getting to this tournament is quite an honor.

It's obviously had an impact on Andalusia, too. All four motels in town are full. Travis is staying about 60 miles away -- the closest lodging we could find. The Andalusia town Web site features two events this week: The Alabama Gun and Knife Show, and the Babe Ruth tourney. On weekdays next week, the Babe Ruth tournament is all they're promoting.

Keep an eye out for Travis' coverage from Alabama starting Sunday. We'll have preview coverage on our Sports and news pages prior to that, as well.

William Powers of the National Journal wrote an interesting column last
week about newspaper readers. He said there is no doubt that people who
read newspapers, or read stories on Web sites that originate from newspaper
newsrooms (most Web stories do), are more likely to succeed in this world
than people who don't keep up with the news. Powers offers anecdotal and
historical support for this.

It's something I often say when speaking publicly: Smart Mainers and smart
Americans know that to succeed and compete, they have to know what's going
on in the community, state and nation around them. That's why I am bullish
on the future of journalism -- because we journalists, imperfect as we are,
do in fact try to keep you informed, and we try hard to do it fairly and
honestly.

We have opinion pages, but we don't spin every fact in every
story into an opinion or position, the way so many Web sites and TV pundits
do.

Powers also noted that some really smart men -- Rupert Murdoch, Sam Zells
of Chicago (wants to buy the Tribune Co.) and Dean Singleton of Denver (his
MediaNews company owns dozens of papers, and is still accumulating) -- are
buying newspapers at a time when much is being written (and overstated)
about the industry's troubles.

Why, Powers asked, if these men are so smart
and have used their intellects to make millions of dollars, would they be
betting so much on newspapers when bloggers and other so-called "experts"
are predicting our demise?

Powers' point, of course, is that these men are right and the armchair
part-timers are wrong. Captains of industry who've made millions of dollars
by getting things right time and again probably see the future more clearly
than most.

He asked: "So what's more reliable: the behavior of the Murdochs, the Sam
Zells, and the other Darwinian alpha types who still see competitive
advantages in newspapers, or a bunch of sad-sack journalists who claim that
their profession is dying? You do believe in evolution, don't you?"

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

It started last week when we reported that a tractor-trailer loaded with chicken manure overturned on a man's lawn, caking his yard, trees and parked cars.

It continued Sunday with a remarkable story about a Waterville
dentist whose license has been suspended for a variety of reasons.

The story told how staffers engaged in inappropriate sexual
behavior at the office, performed poor dental work -- and that the dentist herself
showed up wearing a belly dancer costume. You can read the story
here: Disciplined dentist seeks to regain license

We also reported on a possible tornado that touched down in Somerset County
Saturday. Tornadoes are unusual in Maine, but Saturday's weather conditions
sparked either a small tornado or a "microburst" in Pittsfield and East
Madison that caused up to $1 million in damage.

You can read Darla Pickett's stories here:Tornado-like winds cause extensive property damage in Somerset County

Wind crushes cars, fells trees in Somerset County

In the Morning Sentinel yesterday, we reported on Sister Katherine Kelm, who
apparently thwarted a burglary by slamming shut a window on someone as they tried to enter the convent. This was the same place where two nuns were killed 11 years ago.

You can read that story here:Nun thwarts burglar at Waterville convent

What's my point? Summer traditionally is regarded as a slow season for news
(though I've always doubted that), but this summer we've reported on many
unusual and just flat-out interesting events. The summer of 2007 has been
anything but routine.

Newspaper readers: This Sunday, we introduce some nice improvements to our Life & Leisure section. We've heard from our research that one area where we could do better, news-wise, is serving younger women.

So, we've added one of the nation's hippest advice columnists, Harlan Cohen, and his nationally known column, Help Me Harlan! It's not just for women. Rather, his advice is largely for people under 35 who face a fast-paced dating world and just being happy.

We'll also start a new garden column. Tom Atwell, who was born and raised in central Maine, writes a weekly column on Maine gardening for the Maine Sunday Telegram. This week, he'll start writing for us too. Tom also writes a blog for the Portland Press Herald Web site. I haven't added him to our Web sites yet; if you feel strongly about that, let me know. Tom replaces long-time garden columnist Henry Homeyer, who did a wonderful job for us. Thank you, Henry.

Finally, we've built a new page that is intended to give "on the go" readers highlights for the coming week or so on TV, at the movies, with local music, arts and entertainment shows. It will include short features on local stars (yes, we have some.). We tell you what the "hot tix" are -- hottest event tickets currently on sale in our area. We hope you find it a useful, easy-to-read guide to fun events coming up.