Welcome to our new and enhanced Sunday OBSERVER. It arrives to you, our readers, one day early complete with your favorite features from both editions in one.

Filled with the latest news and sports, it also includes an expanded Opinion section, color comics, our weekly calendar and the all-important crossword puzzles. Our Weekend Life section also includes area accomplishments, reunions and engagement announcements. Your favorite shopping inserts and coupons are included inside as well.

We know change is not easy, but our society has seen — and accepted — a great deal of it through the last decade. Online and Internet advances have shaped the way many of us shop, travel, communicate and consume information.

This newspaper also has weathered that shift. Our product, once exclusively print, is now available to consumers at www.observertoday.com, through Facebook and Twitter. The audience reach in these platforms continues to grow, currently at 35,000. It is more readers than ever before.

On Tuesday, OBSERVER City Editor Jo Ward was a part of the changing way in which we cover news. She traveled to Buffalo to cover U.S. Rep. Tom Reed’s press conference on the poor road conditions east of the Silver Creek exit.

While there, she shared video of Reed’s speech through Twitter that was later included on our Facebook page. Wednesday’s print and online edition included the article she wrote with photos.

That practice of covering news continues today — and every day — with information regarding the recent events at the Villenova Town Board that will impact many and additional coverage of the highly talked about boat races that took place two weeks ago.

These articles illustrate a 137-year commitment that is about more than just this newspaper, it is about bettering this community.

I’m proud to say the OBSERVER has played a role in so many community initiatives in the last year. Those include:

¯ Helping organize Memorial Day services in Dunkirk as well as being a key sponsor to the Great Lakes Experience that was held in June in Memorial Park.

¯ Working with the Local Economic Development group that is tied to the Northern Chautauqua Community Foundation to spur action and advocacy for projects that will help grow this region.

¯ Working and donating to worthy non-profit causes in this area, including the Foundation, the Resource Center, the Boys & Girls Club of Northern Chautauqua County, the Salvation Army, Dunkirk-Fredonia Rotary, Lakeshore Humane Society, the United Way of Northern Chautauqua County and so many more.

¯ Sponsoring the Kaleidoscope Family Series at the Rockefeller Arts Center at the State University of New York at Fredonia.

¯ Organizing the 2018 and 2019 Lake Erie Outdoor & Fishing Show to highlight our great natural asset in April before the highly touted angling season begins. On Sept. 7, our first Wonderful World of Women show takes place. We hope to see you there.

Comments and questions regarding the OBSERVER are always appreciated. As always, thanks for reading — and caring — about our community.

John D’Agostino is the OBSERVER publisher. Send comments to jdagostino@observertoday.com or call 366-3000, ext. 401.