Much of what leaders in the newspaper industry are discussing publicly these days relates to the development of our online products. Indeed, the Internet does represent a giant opportunity to reach new consumers of the information we gather.

I've certainly used this column frequently to highlight our Web initiatives, and I'll continue doing that in the future.

But this past week reminded me that the newspaper industry's core mission - producing a daily print edition - remains a powerful public service.

I was fortunate enough to attend the New York Newspaper Publishers Association annual awards banquet in Albany, where a couple of our staffers received honors. You may have read about them in a news brief we published in Friday's edition.

The association handed out about 75 awards in various categories across five different circulation size categories. As each award was announced, a short description of the article or photo was read while images of the material were projected onto screen.

Seeing the quality of the work done by reporters, photographers and editors - all of which appeared in actual New York state newspapers - was reassuring. These pieces influenced policy, uncovered problems, inspired changes.

There's no question our industry is evolving, but we must always keep our foundation of reporting, writing and photography strong.

Now onto a couple of coverage matters:

€ Perhaps you saw the banner tease on today's front page about our school election coverage that will appear in Sunday's paper. We'll be running a two-page spread in the print edition that provides information on the budgets and any special propositions before voters in the local school districts' elections on Tuesday. We also will have information on individuals who are running for school board seats. Finally, the opinion page on Sunday will include our endorsements for the three open seats on the Auburn Enlarged City School District board, which the editorial board formulated after interviewing candidates individually.

€ You'll also see school election-related letters to the editor, though you may have sent one in that didn't appear. If that's the case, it's likely the letter came to us after Tuesday, May 8. For several years now, we've had a deadline for any election-related letters to ensure that we're able to run as many as possible. Such letters need to be in one week prior to an election in order to be printed. It's a policy that's published every day at the bottom of the opinion page.

During this school board season, though, we received several letters after the deadline. I'm sure readers simply didn't know there was a deadline, but we need to be consistent with our policies. In retrospect, I wish I had run a special breakout or two prior to the deadline reminding people of the policy.

I'll certainly remember to do that in the fall.

Executive editor Jeremy Boyer's columns appear Saturdays in The Citizen and he can be reached at 253-5311 ext. 231 or jeremy.boyer@lee.net