I can still remember the first time I learned about the Internet. I was in a journalism class in college; our professor, Ed Mullins, was telling us about this new medium that was going to transform our lives.

Back then, I could not have predicted how much we would all come to rely on the Internet — or how much information and misinformation could be spread so quickly on so many millions of sites.

As the Internet has exploded, newspapers and other media have been quick to expand our reach to the Internet. Our Web site has been not only an extension of our print product but also a stand-alone site that allows us to publish more photos and stories than appear in our newspaper.

The Brewton Standard will debut a newly redesigned Web site this week, one that we hope will be easier for readers to navigate.

The site will be hosted on a new platform which will also allow us to update stories more often. Over the past several months, we have been updating our site more frequently, publishing obituaries as soon as we receive them and stories as they happen, giving you more up-to-date news.

We plan to expand that practice on our newly redesigned site, and we look forward to more interaction from our readers.

Visitors who register on the site will be able to comment on stories. Comments on stories will go live as soon as they are entered, as long as a registered user has been verified through a simple process.  We hope this is another reader-friendly aspect that keeps you coming back to our site.

As we transition to the new site today, we hope you will have patience with us. We will update our Facebook page when the site goes live so you can check it out.

Kerry Whipple Bean is publisher of The Brewton Standard. She can be reached at 867-4876 or by e-mail at kerry.bean@brewtonstandard.com.