KEN GRAHAM: FROM THE PUBLISHER

Even at the ripe old age of 136 years, it wasn't too late to give The Times a facelift, or so we thought. So this week we bring you a new, more colorful and hopefully more engaging newspaper layout.

We now have full color on all our pages, and our photographs and other images promise to be crisper and brighter. A few months ago, I asked designer Vanessa Heim to help us design a new layout template, and you can see the result. I hope our weekly layout skills can live up to her wonderful vision.

Since the 1980s The Times has been printed at the Walla Walla Union Bulletin. But the U-B has an aging press that dates back to the 1960s. Beginning with this issue, The Times is being printed at the Lewiston Tribune, whose press is only seven years old, and was designed for high quality full-color digital reproduction.

I want to give a big thanks to the staff at the U-B for their many years of fine support of The Times. Since I've been involved with this paper, their service has been beyond excellent, and the change we're making is in no way a reflection on them.

Of course, all of these changes are purely superficial. Our commitment to bringing the best possible coverage of news and lifestyle information for Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley hasn't changed. Reporter Dena Wood and I are always on the lookout for interesting stories about people in our region, and we'll continue to bring you as many interesting ones as we can. Office manager Tawnya Richards is often the first point of contact for readers and advertisers, and she is committed to providing outstanding service.

Our advertising manager, Kevin Steffanson, will continue to be out talking to businesses in the Touchet Valley about how they can improve their visibility by advertising in The Times and The Times MONTHLY.