Beginning Sunday, July 5, The Advocate & Democrat will publish on Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday.
"This change will allow us to get information to our readers in a more timely fashion," said General Manager and Editor Mia Rhodarmer. "It also will provide more production time for our Sunday paper, which continues to grow and is very popular with our readers and advertisers."

The Tuesday and Thursday editions will be available in the mail and in newspaper racks on Tuesday and Thursday mornings. The Sunday paper will continue to be delivered to your home as usual (for those living in our home delivery area).

The new deadlines for advertisers and submitted news items are as follows:

Sunday paper, noon Wednesday; Tuesday paper, 4 p.m. Thursday; Thursday paper, noon Tuesday.
In between editions, readers can continue to get news updates on the newspaper's Web site, advocateanddemocrat.com. Readers can also sign up for breaking news alerts on the Web site.

"We are very pleased with the growing number of people we have signing up for the news alerts," said Rhodarmer. "We use this to send out weather alerts, school closings and breaking news items."
The Web site also contains photos from local events that are not published in the paper. "People can look at the photos free of charge, or they can order prints and gift items," said Rhodarmer.
At this time, not all news items are posted on the Web site, so readers are encouraged to continue reading the print edition for full coverage of news and community events.

New features
The Advocate & Democrat also is pleased to announce award-winning columnist Melissa Kinton will return with her popular "What I think" column.

Kinton was a reporter at The Advocate & Democrat for five years and won awards for her photography, column writing, education and public service reporting.

"Melissa's columns could make you laugh or cry or make you scratch your head and think. She had a loyal group of fans who enjoyed reading about her pets, her daily adventures and what she thought about local politics," said Rhodarmer. "Melissa is now the mother of a 1-year-old son and has lots of new tales to tell."

Kinton's column will be published the first Sunday of each month beginning July 5.
Also in July, The Advocate & Democrat will begin publishing a weekly comics and puzzle page in the Sunday edition.

If you have any questions about these changes, please call General Manager and Editor Mia Rhodarmer at 337-7101 or e-mail editor@advocateanddemocrat.com.

"I always look forward to hearing from our readers," said Rhodarmer. "I encourage you to send us your comments or suggestions."