S.J. CAHN -- Editor’s Notebook

You’ll notice a few changes as you pick up today’s Pilot, beginning

with this column being on our front page. From here out -- with the rare

exception dictated by overwhelming news -- the columnists you’re used to

finding on page 3 will run on page 1.

We decided to make that change to infuse our cover page with more

personality and to give you, our readers, more variety when you pick the

Pilot up each morning.

Mainly, though, the changes being made are in our sports pages.

Those pages have been redesigned by our art director, Joey Santos, who

worked with Sports Editor Roger Carlson to play up our strength --

providing extensive prep and youth coverage -- in our design. You won’t

be losing any of the features there: athlete of the week, the hall of

fame and Shadowlands, among them. But we hope you will find them easier

and more pleasurable to read and that the pages feel more unified with

the rest of the Pilot, because they play a vital part in the paper each

day, just as the community sports scene plays a vital role in

Newport-Mesa.

Other changes are more minor. You may have noticed the return of an

old Pilot tradition -- a snappy little weather summary on page 1. We’re

bringing it back along with altering our page 2 “Surf and Sun” report.

That report now will include expanded boating information as well as more

details about how the day is shaping up in our skies and on our shores.

Gone, though, are the sub-community by sub-community temperature

reports. Why? I’ll just say it: Sometimes we didn’t quite nail the

temperatures right. Was Costa Mesa really 15 degrees warmer than Newport

Beach? Even more questionable: Was Balboa actually 6 degrees cooler than

Corona del Mar?

I also remember the day when we had the water temperature about 12

degrees hotter than it really was. Believe me, all the surfers in this

office know what it’s like to race into the water and have every organ

nearly shut down from the cold.

I’m happy to report, from reading a bunch of newspapers, that this is

a journalism-wide foible. Call it a matter of the devil being in the

details, but with so much weather information floating around -- and the

weather being hard enough to predict, as is -- getting it exact is pretty

elusive.

So, instead of misguiding you with numbers, we’re going to be

compiling the information in a more narrative format. We hope it will

give you a better idea of what to expect, not only when you step out the

door in the morning, but when you go to lunch or for that sunset stroll.

We’re also providing you Web site links so you can find those dreaded

details, if you want them.

Our page 2 staff box also will begin including e-mail links for the

Pilot staff. These links will be found, as well, at the end of our major

news stories of the day.

Finally, we are moving our police file and consolidating it with any

brief pieces of news from the public safety beat. Until the fair ends,

these will appear on page 6. Afterwards, you can find them on page 4,

which also will be where you can find obituaries, including those paid

for by the family that had been appearing in our classified section.

It’s a lot of changes, we know. But we are confident they will help us

in our central mission: giving you the news you need from your hometown.

Let us know if you agree.

* S.J. CAHN is the Pilot’s senior city editor. He can be reached at

(949) 574-4233 or at o7 steven.cahn@latimes.comf7 . Editor Tony Dodero

has the day off. His column will return, on page 1, next week.