Dear readers,

The first regional East Oregonian print edition is out the door, and we’re well into planning next week’s.

Getting here was tough, no way to sugarcoat that, but we applied criticism from the former weekend paper to make the EO a truly regional paper. We held a “postmortem,” if you will, to go over what we can do better going forward and to emphasize what to keep on doing.

After announcing the EO would change to a regional paper with content from the Hermiston Herald, The Observer, the Baker City Herald, the Blue Mountain Eagle and the Wallowa County Chieftain, we heard from a few subscribers expressing skepticism about whether we would represent their communities in print.

We took that seriously and had news from throughout Northeastern Oregon in the paper.

We nixed dedicating pages to news from a given county. Instead, we decided the most significant news and the news with the best photo packages get priority and go on the front page. From there, we covered our inside pages with news from local government coverage to features on interesting people, no matter the county.

That was just the A section. We have a section for Outdoors & Recreation and a section for Business & Agriculture. The EO continues to carry our weekly Go Eastern Oregon magazine, but now includes the monthly Eastern Oregon Parent magazine. As Blue Mountain Eagle editor Bennett Hall said, this paper has a “thump” factor now.

All of this, however, remains a work in progress. You, our readers, remain our most important critics, so please, share your thoughts about this new regional paper with us. If we can make the EO better, we will.

Going regional also means your digital subscription access has been expanded to include the East Oregonian, La Grande Observer, Hermiston Herald, Baker City Herald, Wallowa County Chieftain, and Blue Mountain Eagle.

For all digital access:

•Simply register your account on every site you wish to read with the same email address and password you currently use.

•Once you’ve registered, enter your username and password to enjoy the full range of content on that news site.

•You should not have to login again unless you log out, clear history or experience software updates.

•Save your password when prompted by your browser and if you are inadvertently logged out, your browser can fill in your login and password for you. (Only use this option on your personal digital devices.)

To view the latest e-Editions, be sure to register your account and sign in to www.eastoregonian.com.

Sign up for e-newsletters from each website by going to the “Email lists” link on your account dashboard for each site.

Thank you for supporting local journalists in Eastern Oregon.

If you have any questions or need assistance, please contact us at 800-781-3214 or email support@eomediagroup.com.

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As always, if you have comments or questions about the East Oregonian, or want to pass along a story idea, send me an email at this address: editor@eastoregonian.com.

And of course thank you to East Oregonian’s subscribers: We simply would be unable to do this vital work without your support.

Phil Wright is the managing editor of the East Oregonian.