Lots of projects and too little time to blog recently. I'll try to get back into a regular routine, although it will be difficult, given what's going on here.

For example, we're proceeding with something called the Ben Franklin Project. The editors will be telling you a lot more about it in the days to come. In short, it will culminate in a special edition on July 4, Independence Day, highlighted by contributions generated by our readers. There's much more to it than that - particularly behind the scenes, as we attempt to publish a newspaper using tools available to anyone on the Internet. Stay tuned.

Then there's the matter of installing a brand, new computer system for our editors and reporters. Long-overdue and highly anticipated, the system will replace software and hardware that needed replacement a decade ago. What will it mean to us? Think about the difference in your lives when you junked your first computer for a faster, more versatile laptop, for example. But before that happens, there's the not so small matter of installation and training. We're looking at "going live" before the end of June. Keep your fingers crossed.

Meantime, it's been fascinating watching the numbers climb on our Website. Page views and unique visitors continue to rise. Well over 125,000 "uniques" a month visit our site. And at a time when newspaper sales are dropping dramatically around the country, the slippage here is far short of the industry average. (And we're starting to see growth again in subscriptions.)

There was a time not all that long ago when it was hard to be optimistic about newspapering. No longer.