Online identity is evolving

If newspapers hadn't existed before the Internet, someone would have invented them.

The printed newspaper is a marvelous form for telling stories, providing depth, laying out issues, providing community connection and bringing news into focus. It rewards those who love reading, puzzles, obituaries and classified advertising -- reading for enjoyment as well as information.

We keep this in mind at The N&O as we leap forward with online journalism. The two forms, print and online, are becoming increasingly distinct. That's true not just for what we're reporting and presenting but also for how people are using the paper and our Web sites.

Soon, we will update our home page at newsobserver.com to organize and highlight the many elements we've added: dozens of breaking news stories and updates each day, videos, photo galleries, blogs, reader-posted material and searchable information.

Newsobserver.com no longer is "the online newspaper." It has evolved into a live news source tapping the Internet's strengths (the ability to search for specific topics and material, for instance) and giving readers additional reach into The N&O's deep wells of information.

The newspaper, meanwhile, is no longer just the "paper of record," if it ever was. Instead, it's a medium that goes beyond the headline to explore what news means and how it affects people.

Stories such as our recent speeding series and Jay Price's Sunday Journal piece last week on a Marine left behind in Cambodia, and illustrations such as Tim Lee's amazing Harry Potter poster page in a recent edition, for instance, reach readers more effectively in a newspaper than electronically.

Longtime N&O readers have seen a lot of change and might find columns like this one to be so much gobbledygook.

"Stop changing it," one advised me, and that was a couple of years ago.

Newsrooms can't stand still amid an information revolution, however. Every iPhone or YouTube or breakthrough technology alters the way people live -- not just what devices they're using, but how they read.

Online readers have boosted the audience for The N&O and its community papers, along with newspapers overall. Technology has aided and expanded our journalism.

More and more, you'll see us using both forms to exploit their strengths. Election material will be posted as we get it at newsobserver.com and our Under the Dome political blog; close to the election, we'll publish the printed Voter's Guide that many people rely on to understand candidates and issues as they head to the polls.

You'll see breaking news video on our Web site and read the next day's story to gain what we've learned from additional hours of reporting and verification.

Watch for the updated home page approach at newsobserver.com and let me know what you think.