After a couple of difficult financial years, we have good news from The News and Observer Publishing Co.
Sunday, two of our community papers - North Raleigh News and Midtown Raleigh News - will expand from Wednesday publication to twice a week.
We will publish them on Sundays, too, because they are popular with readers and advertisers. Each publication is distributed to about 65,000 households in central or North Raleigh.
We are adding reporters to provide more local news in each. Ray Martin, who has reported for the two papers for the last year, will continue.
He has been joined by reporter Chelsea Kellner, who previously wrote for the newspapers in Sanford and Wilmington.
News assistant Sarah Rubenoff, another newsroom newcomer, will help readers get their listings about schools, clubs, PTAs and faith communities into the papers and online. (If you don't receive the print version of these papers, you can read them online at northraleighnews.com and midtownraleighnews.com.)
Jason Foster, previously a reporter and editor at the Rock Hill Herald, our sister paper in South Carolina, is the new editor of the two papers.
Soon we will hire a sports editor/reporter and add a sports page to each publication. This will be a major improvement for both papers.
Readers in North Raleigh and Midtown soon will get the kind of community-oriented coverage of high school and amateur sports that we've long provided in most of our other community papers, such as The Cary News, The Chapel Hill News, the Eastern Wake News and The Herald in Smithfield.
Teri Saylor's column on local athletes will continue to run in the North Raleigh and Midtown publications.
We will continue to add quality content on a variety of subjects.
Earlier this year, we added two pages of science and technology coverage to the Monday N&O. Many of you have called or e-mailed to say how much you enjoy this coverage, which we produce jointly with our colleagues at The Charlotte Observer.
In September, we will add a new page to the Tuesday paper. The page, called "Thumbs up," will recognize youth achievement. We will report on exceptional work done by children in academics, clubs, scouts and volunteering.
The economy is slowly improving. Many of our advertisers have returned, and we are cautiously optimistic that the worst is behind us. Thanks for sticking with us and for reading The N&O and our community publications.
For more on what's going on at The N&O, see Publisher Orage Quarles III's letter to readers in Sunday's paper.
Most days, I get an e-mail or phone call from a reader wanting to discuss or comment on an N&O editorial or a column on our editorial pages.
I supervise news, sports, business and features but not the editorial pages. Steve Ford is in charge of those pages. We each report to the publisher.
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Richard Morgan looks at old photos of himself from when he weighed 265 pounds and sometimes cries. 
Bob Morrison didn't want to return to Haiti. His previous visit five years ago did not end well. 
In Sunday's profile about our Tar Heel of the Year, education reporter Jane Stancill writes that the honoree has "serious credentials and the exuberance of a schoolgirl." 
Robert Willett, a veteran photojournalist at The News & Observer, was cooking dinner for his wife and two daughters recently when he heard from Scott Sharpe, our director of photography. 
Tony Debo, a former WTVD sports reporter and anchor, survived a helicopter crash nearly 20 years ago after a Friday night high school football game in Wilmington. 
When Chapel Hill police officers handcuffed and detained a News & Observer reporter last weekend, their actions were rare for the Triangle - and unnecessary. 
