Two lucky Reporter readers were rewarded for taking part in our survey. Daintry Bamberger (left) from the Education Library and Natalia Tsvetkov from the Admissions and Registrar's Office were guided on a Bookstore shopping spree by manager Horst Bitschofsky.

After a summer spent behaving like Goldilocks as I stared at typefaces and page layouts  this one's too wide, that one's too tall, this one's too busy, that one's too serious  I am pleased to unveil what we think is the just-right new Reporter.

Design is by the very talented  and patient  Eric Smith, who endlessly moved things fractions of millimetres up, down and sideways on editorial whim. We have even added a dash of colour to inaugurate our 30th year of publication. It's not the official McGill red, but then we don't think of ourselves as the "official" newspaper so much as the newspaper for the campus community.

The electronic Reporter has a new look, too, and some helpful information on things like ad rates and deadlines, so be sure to visit www.mcgill.ca/reporter.

Before embarking on the redesign, we sought a little advice from readers via an informal survey published in the May issues and on the web. We thank all those who responded and are grateful for the suggestions and comments.

We asked you to rate us and our regular features according to your level of interest. We got top marks for keeping the community informed, and were especially appreciated by retirees, a few of whom said they felt quite cut off from McGill since leaving.

While a handful of readers said they wanted to hear less on budget, government policy and tuition, that has been the core of the news on campus over the last few years and was the area of greatest interest.

Also rated highly were articles on administrative decisions and labour negotiations, People and Places features and Senate reports.

Asked to judge format, respondents said we covered a pretty good range of issues and while we scored very high for credibility, we fell somewhere about the middle for balance.

A significant number of readers said they would like to see more debate and a broader range of opinion on issues that affect McGill. This year we will be running "streeters," soliciting brief comments from people around campus, so keep an eye out for enquiring associate editor Daniel McCabe.

We probably don't say it often enough, but we do welcome written opinion pieces from faculty, staff and students. They can be hard to elicit due to people's busy schedules and, sometimes, their reluctance to go on record. If an opinion piece seems too daunting, have your say in a letter to the editor.

We will also be following up on the suggestion to introduce a feature on campus history  people and buildings  as well as digging into McGill's and the Reporter's archives.

We remind anyone who missed the survey that we are still a work in progress and you can write to us with ideas and comments anytime. We also welcome story ideas and are grateful to hear about events coming up in your departments. However, with only two full-time staff it's difficult to cover all the openings, unveilings and ribbon cuttings on campus. Without a photographer, we must pay assignment fees to free-lancers and so cannot respond to requests to "send your photographer up here in an hour." We can on the other hand give you the names of excellent people if your department has a little money to spare (I know, I know) and we would consider running a good photo from an event that would be of interest to the community.

Happy new year. And do stay in touch...

DIANA GRIER AYTON