We've been getting lots of favorable comments in recent months about our newspaper's editorials. To be sure, not everyone agrees with their points of view, but readers seem to like the writing style and strong convictions.

The most common question: Who writes the editorials?

The answer: It doesn't matter.

Let me explain.

Editorials express the opinion of the newspaper, as determined by its editorial board. In other words, no one person makes the call, although at the end of the day, the publisher -- that's me -- has to approve or reject them. Indeed, historically in the newspaper business, the editorial page has come to be known as "the publisher's page." That doesn't mean the publisher writes editorials -- although I do on occasion -- only that my seal of approval is on all of them.

So who writes our editorials? Could be me. Could be Managing Editor Sam Daleo or Assistant Managing Editor Tony Adamis or Political Editor Hugh Reynolds. That's the editorial board.

But the editorials are different these days, harder hitting, edgier perhaps, you say. Someone different must be writing them.

Correct.

So why not say who it is?

Because to attach a name to the editorials would distract from them being read as "the newspaper's opinion" as opposed to "that person's opinion." We prefer the former designation.

Cloak and dagger? Maybe. Tradition? Yes.