Blogging my newspaper column.

The election is over, I lost, and it's time to get back into fighting trim.

Readers will recall that when I announced my candidacy for city council, my Tribune column went on hiatus after 111 straight weekly appearances. Among local politicians, only Ed Clere gets a pass by being allowed to campaign in print, all the year round, except just before the "official" campaign season begins.

But I digress.

Since February, some conditions have changed. The merger of the Tribune and Evening News was announced, and now all the news from Floyd and Clark counties is rolled into one edition of the newspaper, to be viewed from Otisco and Galena alike. Now, literally, the News and Tribune is One Southern Indiana Newspaper.

Personally, this very fact of regionalism means that it is more important than ever before for there to be a voice at the newspaper, in column format, for my own city and county. I suspect that certain demographic (and advertising revenue) realities will conspire to steadily reduce New Albany and Floyd County's daily profile in the unified newspaper. I fear that in fact, if not in name, we have lost our newspaper. It saddens me.

Fortunately, Matt Nash is still on board. I'd like to return, but that's management's decision. Until this decision is rendered, I am going to try to return to a weekly writing regimen and post my newspaper column here at the blog on Thursdays, with the same word count as before.

Stay tuned.