That means this is the last free-standing Business section you'll see in The N&O. Consider it a collectible.

It's no secret that newspaper revenue is down, and this change saves money. The business staff is smaller now, too, having lost a reporter to the recent layoffs and an assistant editor to the recent buyouts. We also are losing a valued reporter to retirement (more on that later). But it is not our intention to diminish our coverage of businesses in the Triangle or the state. Nor will we ignore national and international business and economic stories.

With prices rising, gas costs skyrocketing and the economy teetering, there's no bigger story than the one being told by business reporters. And our business staff is ably equipped to tell it.

In four of the past seven years, The N&O Business section has won a Best in Business award from the Society of Business Writers and Editors. The past three years, members of our business staff have won N.C. Press Association awards for their work. We will continue to strive for excellence in our coverage.

What will the changes mean to you? You will find business news in different places.

Business reporters will continue to write for the newspaper's front page. Their stories also will be on 1B, which is the Triangle & Co. section front, as well as on four inside pages dedicated to business news. The daily report on the financial markets will follow the first business page. Stock listings and mutual funds remain intact.

Business news of national and international interest will move between 1A and the business pages.

We will continue to run listings of calendar events: career moves, personnel changes, bankruptcies, philanthropic endeavors and awards. Paul Gilster's computers column and the Stump the Geeks column are making the move as well. Sue Stock's retailing column will be on the Triangle & Co. section front on Saturdays. Jack Hagel's Commercial Real Estate column will continue to run on Thursdays.

The Monday News & Observer, which currently has no business page, gets one.

What will be lost in this merger? There will be less national business news in the print edition, although more will be online. We will be choosier about how we use our valuable space and fewer resources.

A word now about those resources. We have eight reporters and two editors covering business news. There will, however, be some tweaking of beats in the coming weeks. That change is necessitated in part by recent layoffs at the newspaper but also by the retirement this week of longtime N&O reporter Dudley Price.

Price, who started as a reporter at The Raleigh Times in 1973, has spent the past 14 years on the business desk. In recent years, he has reported on residential real estate and the airline industry. His knowledge of the region, as well as his thoughtful, dogged reporting, will be missed.

As the business staff makes this transition, we look forward to hearing from our readers. If you have suggestions or questions, please share them.

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