"Change is the only constant.

"Hanging on is the only sin."

U.S. race-car driver Denise McCluggage made this comment in an interview with WomenSports magazine in 1977, but these are words we live with every day at the Richmond Times-Dispatch.

Over the past several months on these pages, different editors have written about the transformation taking place in the news industry. While we are challenged to increase the number of paid subscriptions in a perceived era of free content, we still have a solid base of more than 170,000 who choose to buy the paper every day. Many more read copies passed along from other folks.

But more and more, our longtime readers and new readers are going online throughout the day to get their news and information. To meet readers where they are, earlier this year we created a Continuous News Desk that publishes online first, then comes back with fuller stories in the newspaper.

We hear from people that they don't have time to read the paper -- and they really hate all those dead trees filling up the recycling bin. They still want local news and information, but it's all overwhelming. We also hear from people who love the printed paper and some others who would like nothing more than to return to the good old days of a morning and afternoon newspaper.

But the realities are that higher costs for things such as newsprint and a recession that is limiting advertising revenues are prompting us to change and let go of some of the old ways.

So, we're going to streamline things a bit starting next week. We're going to keep what you tell us is most important -- local news and advertising information -- and add more of what you say you like to read -- food, and home and gardening information, stories about local people, events and happenings around town, and occasional surprising stories that entertain and sometimes astound us all.

We'll continue to pursue the accountability and watchdog reporting you've come to count on from us.

We're going to write and edit routine stories tighter so "just the facts" is more efficient, and we will add space for stories of significance that require more context and explanation -- for example, coverage of the shootings at Virginia Tech and our series of stories and photos detailing conditions at the Richmond City Jail.

Business and sports news continue to be important to all of us, and we'll continue doing our best with those sections. Our Classified sections will have new front pages that focus on a specific shopping or merchandise theme.

. . .

In our streamlining, we've moved some features and sections and eliminated others that have lower readership.

A few of the big changes that take effect next week: