A new chapter in story of the Express & Star

And yet, you may not be able to tell the difference, writes Editor Keith Harrison.

The pages are still crammed with local news, insightful comment and eye-catching pictures.

There are plenty of exclusives, revelations, interviews, dates for the diary and stories to raise a smile.

There's the latest on national and international issues, bringing you a clear perspective on global events, such as the appalling Malaysian plane disaster.

There are 24 pages dedicated to the Commonwealth Games; bursting with pride about our local athletes, their talent and their medal hopes.

There are still the respected writers, the local knowledge and passion for our area.

And through it all remain the family values and integrity ingrained in this newspaper for the past 125 years, giving a respected independent voice on West Midlands issues and beyond.

So what's new?

Well, from today, changes to our production schedule mean that our newspapers are going to be printed earlier.

The presses will be rolling from close to midnight and continue right through the early hours.

That doesn't make us a 'morning paper' – our deadlines will still be later than the nationals and even when production has started we'll be able to 'stop the press' for big stories.

(Being able to say 'Hold the front page!' is still one of the great thrills of being an editor.)

What it does mean is that we'll be available in shops earlier and readers who have the paper delivered may find it arrives sooner.

Our long-standing edition structure will remain, our reporters will still be on call 24 hours a day and our offices will still be in exactly the same places as they have been for years.

The changes will allow us to carry even more local news, with the return of our Saturday editions across Staffordshire, Walsall, Sandwell, Dudley and Wolverhampton.

We will build on our great strength as the region's top local news provider to put extra focus on our towns, villages and cities.

We'll still be flying the flag for all our local football teams and there will be a stronger emphasis on grass-roots sport, with more tables, fixtures and reports than ever before.

To offset this, there'll be a little less national news and sport on our pages.

The big national storieswill still be there, but the sharp rise in digital technology says readers no longer look to newspapers for the latest test match score or Open golf reports, as they are available up-to-the-minute online. And that's largely why we're switching things around. The newspaper industry has undergone a revolution in the past decade.

The emergence of new technology means that however fast a newspaper is – and we pride ourselves on being the fastest – print can never beat a mobile phone, tablet or Twitter feed to the punch of Breaking News.

Any major event, incident or story is now shared within seconds, often with a running feed of updates, pictures and videos online.

And who is doing this?

The Express & Star, of course; our digital audience has grown at a staggering rate in recent years and stories on our expressandstar.com site are read millions of times every month. We're on top of social media too; more than 100,000 people follow our various Twitter and Facebook accounts alone, with others subscribing to full digital versions of the newspaper.

It's been an unprecedented rate of change and we're determined to stay ahead of the game.

That does not mean sacrificing the quality of your Express & Star, it means adapting to changing times.

This newspaper has a proud history of innovation, vision and foresight; we helped pioneer the use of colour photography in newspapers, we've led the way with our editionising structure for decades and we are determined to keep pace with change to bring you the news in whatever form you want it.

It means letting you know about a crash blocking a main road within seconds online, then giving you the full, detailed story in print.

It doesn't mean the paper in your hands is of less quality than before; in fact, we believe the changes will allow us to produce a better designed newspaper, with more in-depth articles offering improved analysis and background on all the things we work so hard on.

The good, the bad and the ugly council meetings, the court reports, the local issues, the quality supplements – they'll all still be part of our daily offering, brought to you by our 150-strong team of award-winning writers, photographers, designers and artists.

And that's before we include our advertisers, busy classified section and, of course, the births, deaths and marriages (or hatches, matches and dispatches, as they're known in the trade).

It's a daily operation that's been hailed as the best in Britain, with the Express & Star recently named as Regional Newspaper of the Year by the Society of Editors.

Thanks to you, our circulation is still the biggest in the country too, far outstripping big city titles in Manchester, Newcastle and Birmingham.

There are no finer people than our readers and we're on duty round the clock 365-days a year to bring you the best newspaper money can buy – for less than the price of a Mars bar.

Our purpose, our passion and our determination to keep you informed, engaged and entertained remain unchanged.

Here is the news, read all about it.