I received a thoughtfully composed email from a longtime user in the Portland area, responding to the upcoming changes. I think this will be a reaction of many people when the new site launches, so the issue is worth exploring here. Here's the writer's key point:

Since the last "re-design" of your site I have found it much more difficult to find news and information useful to me.... After reading your blog update about re-design, my reaction is that there is some useful information that will be more easily accessed (trails, entertainment schedules, etc) but I hope that these will not take the place of the news.

Here's my reply:

Thanks for taking the time to write.

What you're describing is one of the big reasons we're making this change. News is important to us as a company and obviously to you as a web user. The role of local news on the www.PressHerald.com site will become stronger as a result of this change.

The things you're describing that currently overshadow news on the MaineToday.com site? Actually they will become more prominent.

The idea is that people like yourself will want to make PressHerald.com your home page, and check MaineToday.com for upcoming events, community connections etc. People who are not very oriented to news, who represent a good chunk of the population, hopefully will find material of interest on the new Mainetoday.com, and will then move to our news sites when they want local news.

I realize we've been telling you for 12 years to "make MaineToday.com your home page" and now we're changing our story. I hope you'll consider changing your home page to PressHerald.com (if the new MaineToday.com doesn't meet your news needs)

Again, thanks for writing, and thanks especially for your loyal usage of our services.

Joe