Editor’s Note:

You may have noticed that the front page of today’s Daily Pilot looks a little different. We have moved the boxes promoting our Web content, such as the online poll and blog updates, from the bottom of Page 1 to the Forum page. The Forum page appears on A3 Tuesdays through Saturdays and on various pages in the A section on Sundays.

The decision was made to better display print stories and columns on the front page while still calling attention to our unique online content. The move will allow us to publish more stories on the front page and give our page designers an opportunity to be more creative.

There is more to this than presentation. Another one of my hopes is that moving the online poll to the Forum page, where readers and contributors routinely share their opinions, will help spark debate and discussion in a corner of the newspaper dedicated to gathering and sharing the community’s opinions. I am deeply interested in readers’ points of view, whether expressed in a formal letter to the editor or in the comments sections of online articles.

And finally, I am of the opinion that our core websites, DailyPilot.com, TheOCNow.com and GameOnOC.com, are steadily growing their respective audiences and no longer need the front-page boost. The sites are able to stand on their own and complement our efforts in print.

JOHN CANALIS is editorial director for the Daily Pilot, Laguna Beach Coastline Pilot and Huntington Beach Independent. He can be reached at (714) 966-4607 and john.canalis@latimes.com