Having recently returned from our annual newspaper convention, the management staff at The Post is actively planning soon to be released improvements to both our print and digital products.

I have always liked to use the energy of the national conferences to propel us forward each year and 2017 will be no exception. We go to considerable expense taking a large group to such educational conferences and use it as a kind of managers retreat to discuss how to get better. You always pick up ideas from the speakers or the other publishers.

In addition to that education, we have more and more who come to use the conferences like a football pre-season "training camp" at a remote site. Such retreats get people out of their normal day to day routines so they can focus just on the company mission. We definitely accomplished that in Louisville.

These days, the media landscape is changing so rapidly that it takes a lot more planning than in my earlier life as a newspaper publisher. I think just about every business owner could say that today, things just evolve so much faster now.

Last week we asked for our readers' opinions about our newspaper in our Weekly Online Poll. The results were interesting because it reinforced to us that there are so many types of readers these days. If you ask the same questions to print only readers versus web only readers, you get two completely different sets of answers.

This is basically what we have come away from our conferences and planning sessions with. One size just does not fit all anymore. So our goal has been to re-imagine how we could deliver our hometown newspaper to different people differently, in the way that they want it.

I have always been a huge proponent of the print product and more and more national surveys and statistical analyzes bear this out. Many people still prefer print ... and not just old folks like me. Even millennials surprisingly. Unlike most other newspapers that have been abandoning or shrinking their print to convert to digital, we want to make the print even better for those that like to read it that way. Then we want to find other digital and print product variations that can help us deliver our uniquely local media product to different readers in different ways.

This also applies to our advertisers. Some people like coupons, some don't, some like advertising flyers, some don't, etc. In the coming months you will see us roll out various enhancements that will help us bring the local news and information you want in the form that you want it. We have spent the last several years working very hard to find out just who wants what and that is going to start paying dividends. Having email addresses to help us communicate with our customers (readers) will be very helpful in allowing us to ascertain what they want and also gives us more ways to get it to them.

For print, we are putting the finishing touches on a redesigned format that will increase the news percentage and make the paper easier to read, keeping things more consistently in the same places due to the added space allowed. I am excited about the mock ups we are working on and can't wait to unveil them.

We concentrated mostly on digital last year with the launch our interactive digital editions. With what we have learned there we will be enhancing the readability of that vehicle as well, plus adding new email and website options.

Thank you to our readers who have helped us by participating in surveys and polls such as last week. It is truly helpful.

Okay, off the soapbox and back to politics. Our Weekly Online Poll this week asks "Should President Trump have fired FBI Director James Comey?" I figured with all the craziness going on out there right now it was too big a story to not bring up. Personally, I have had about enough of the daily Trump dramas. So having an FBI director that himself seems to be a drama queen - going all the way back to his impact on the election process - wasn't helping.

It may be addition by subtraction. But as usual the way Trump handles things and the reasoning behind it ... ugh. Quite frankly, if it was up to me I would fire both of them! Maybe that should have been one of the ballot answers.