Your favourite weekly paper is changing...

We’ll never take you, our readers, for granted. Every week, we’ll strive to produce the best round-up of local news, local sport and local features that we can.

That’s the good news.

And the even better news is that a bigger, better, brighter Herald & Gazette is on the way.

On Thursday, October 4, you’ll notice a few things will have changed.

We’re dramatically changing the look of the paper and giving it a bold, new design. We’re going to freshen up the content, bringing in more features, more news and more sport.

Some things won’t be changing. We won’t change our comprehensive coverage of local news – our team of reporters will continue to be out and about and bringing you unrivalled, in-depth reports from your area.

Our sports coverage will continue to be unsurpassed. There will just be more of it.

We’ll still have the columnists and features that you enjoy every week.

And the Guide will continue to bring you a round-up of the arts and entertainments from around the area – although it will have a bold, new look.

Our Property section will continue but the design will also have a makeover.

Each week until October 4, I’ll be telling you more about our new-look paper.

Don’t forget – all your old favourites will still be in the paper every week. But we’ll be adding more pages, allowing us to publish new things to read.

Some of the new features are include:

• It’s Your Shout – every week, a reader will be invited to rant about something which really gets under their skin. If you’d like a go at being a columnist for a week and speaking out, get in touch – email the address on this page, or write to us.

• Animal Magic – a page dedicated to you and your pets, including advice from a vet and cute photographs.

• Behind the Headlines – a weekly in-depth look at a topic that’s in the news.

• Snap Happy – a page of YOUR pictures. Send us a snap of a birthday party – whether it’s a 100th birthday, a 90th birthday or a first birthday, we’re interested. Or it could be a wedding photo, or a wedding anniversary celebration, a photo of something unusual in your neighbourhood, or your first grandchild, or your newborn... if you want to send us a picture that will make other readers smile, send it to us.

• Women in Business – a column written by a local woman in business for local women in business.

• Nostalgia – four pages of your weekly stroll down memory lane. What are your memories of the area? Do you have recollections or pictures of yesteryear you’d like to share? Get in touch.

• Good News – feel-good stories from your area.

We’ll need your help. We need you to let us know what’s going on in your neighbourhood. We’ll need you to send us your pictures – of birthday parties and other celebrations. We’ll need you to tell us about your pets.

And we’ll also need you to tell us what YOU want to see in your paper every week.

Don’t think the changes are done and dusted. If there’s something YOU want to see included, get in touch. It’s YOUR paper – so help us shape its content week after week.

The Herald series and the Gazette are already some of the most popular and best-read weekly newspapers in the country.

We want to make it even better – and we need your help to do it. So please get in touch.

You can email your views to [email protected], [email protected] or [email protected], or you can comment below.

Colin Channon

Editor in chief

Herald & Gazette series