It's out there.

After considerable time studying the idea of converting to a morning weekday format, we've made the decision to do it starting on Aug. 11. Bottom line - people are increasingly running out of time to read any newspaper. The sooner we can get ours in customers' hands, the more opportunity they'll have to go through it.

That said, we understand there are some people who do like getting The Citizen at the current delivery time. Of those people, though, there are some that might have some misconceptions of how this change will affect the content of the paper. Some of these thoughts came through in our reader surveys, so I'd like to address a few:

Myth No. 1: Going to a morning format means my news will now be two days old.

A common complaint about our current weekday delivery time is that much of the news is outdated by the time it hits the doorstep. Under the current format, a reader will see something about a Wednesday afternoon event when they pick up the paper Thursday night. We have no intention of increasing that time gap.

In going to mornings, we'll be closing that gap, making the content fresher. Readers will be able to get details on a Wednesday night meeting first thing Thursday morning. They certainly won't be waiting for the Friday edition to learn about what happened.

And that misconception leads me to another ...

Myth No. 2: Information from the paper is now gathered and written up in the morning.

We are technically an afternoon paper because we go to press at 9:45 a.m. and we're getting to most homes in the afternoon.

But in terms of how we operate in order to get the paper published on time, we're already functioning much like a morning paper.

Our reporters and photographers are going to night meetings and writing their reports as soon those meetings are over. They're covering breaking news and events in the same way. By and large, the newspaper is finished before midnight.

The only time that changes is when we have overnight or early morning breaking news.

And that takes me to my final point ...

Myth No. 3: A switch from the afternoon format means there will be far less content because it won't have overnight news.

There's no denying that overnight news cannot get immediately into a morning paper, but the reality in Cayuga County is that big stories rarely break during the hours when most of us are sleeping.

I hope that answers some questions. Keep giving us your feedback so we can better serve you in the most effective way possible.

Executive editor Jeremy Boyer's columns appear Saturdays in The Citizen and he can be reached at 253-5311 ext. 231 or jeremy.boyer@lee.net