LETTER FROM THE EDITOR: MISSOURIAN JOINS INFORMATION HIGHWAY

By subscribing to a couple of on-line computer services, the Southeast Missourian has joined a growing number of computer users on the information superhighway.

So far, the Missourian's journey is just building up speed on the on-ramp. Getting into the thick of traffic whizzing around in ether at the speed of light is a mite dizzying, so we are going cautiously. It reminds me of the first time I drove on an interstate highway and had to get up the gumption to merge with the flow of six lanes of rush-hour traffic. With the computer, it is easy to avoid the rush-hour mentality.

Of course, there are those computer whizzes who plunge headlong into the flow. They tend to be younger, I've noticed. A good many students in elementary schools already are comfortably steering along on-line services or the Internet, which give computers a link to the nation and the world. By the time most students are in junior high or senior high school, they are both experienced and comfortable looking through the computer-screen windshield and steering with a keyboard.

One of the advantages of the on-line services and the Internet link is e-mail. For those of you who don't use computers, e-mail won't be a big deal. Telephones and letters will still serve a useful purpose. But almost anyone who uses a computer on the job knows about e-mail and the instant sending and receiving of messages, often with accompanying documentation, artwork or photos.

One way the Missourian is using e-mail is to receive letters to the editor. Computer users with access to an on-line service or the Internet can send letters to the Missourian at this address: SEMOpaper@aol.com.

This service just started last Thursday, so it is way too early to tell if it will be of any use either to readers or to me. But if you would like to give it a try, go right ahead.

I will be check the e-mail every day to see if any of you are sending letters.

Also, if you have questions or comments about the Missourian, you can use e-mail to reach me at the same address. I will try to respond to all the questions. In some cases, your questions may make good fodder for columns so the information can be shared with all the readers.

I wish I knew some spiffy computer lingo so I could show you how adept I am with computers. Remember, I'm still a student driver on the information highway.

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For the past three Saturdays there have been no Finance pages in the Southeast Missouri. That wasn't a mistake or an accident.

One way to find out if readers have strong feelings about what goes into the newspaper is to leave it out. If you don't notice it is gone, then it is probably a safe bet the right decision was made to leave it out.

The Finance page has included a weekly recap of stock listings. This list is customized based on what readers tell us they want listed.

Just so you have some feel for the response so far, let me say that only a handful of readers have called or otherwise commented about the missing Finance pages.

As expected, those of you who want it continued feel very strongly about it. That's important. If editors only put in the paper what they thought every reader would read, there wouldn't be much in the paper. Instead, editors attempt to put in as much variety as possible so the newspaper's content will appeal to as many readers as possible.

Right now it looks like the Finance page will be returning soon. But an expert on stock listings for The Associated Press is in the process of evaluating our listings to see if he can recommend better use or customization of what is available.

Watch for the new and improved Finance page in the very near future. I hope the disruption will be worth it for loyal readers of that page.

~R. Joe Sullivan is the editor of the Southeast Missourian.