As youâÄôre skimming through the pages of the Daily, you will notice numerous articles covering the Republican National Convention. Some of these articles might even have videos associated with them, which can be found on our website. Notice anything different about the site? Well, the Daily staff has been hard at work this summer working to redesign mndaily.com in a continued effort to bring accurate and timely news to the University community through a fresh design. Web Redesign The Daily was one of, if not the first, college newspapers to go on the Web (MIT tries to say they were first). At that time there were only a few stories posted from the print version of the paper. Since the 90s, mndaily.com has gone through many transformations with added features like videos, slideshows and new blogs. In fact, the last major restructuring of the site was in 2005, almost three years ago. After that design took shape, the Daily won several awards for the design. Our online manager Tom Bishop was here at that time of that redesign as a programmer. He has stayed at the Daily through his college years and has taken the charge with his staff to complete the new design just weeks before he goes out into the real world. The revamped site not only has a new look, but also is restructured and has new and improved features like an easier system for readers to comment, which allows readers to engage and interact with the content more freely. The site also includes new blogs to provide more thorough coverage of stories that may not have made into the print version. In the coming weeks, the Daily will launch a new Newsroom blog and Editorial Board blog, as well as an improved system for our current Sports, A&E and Speak Up blogs. RNC News Coverage You might have noticed an increase in traffic around the city and an influx of people. Part of this is the natural increase due to students returning from their summer slumbers, but it also is the result of a backyard national convention, which has brought thousands to the Twin Cities. We are focusing our coverage on events that impact the University community, which covers anything from speakers at the convention to protests led by University students. Our new website also features frequent blog posts from the convention and story updates as news breaks. Our photographers, reporters and videographers will be on the scene to bring news as quickly as possible and find stories that are relevant to you. Welcome Back As fall semester progresses, expect to see innovations and changes to the website and newspaper in our continued effort to provide our readers with quality coverage of news surrounding the University community. And though many newspapers struggle with budget difficulties, the Daily is thriving financially and journalistically. Journalism isnâÄôt dying. ItâÄôs evolving into something greater. âÄîVadim Lavrusik welcomes comments at [email protected].