You’ll be reading plenty of political coverage over the next few weeks, with the June 10 primary just a month away.

On Monday, May 12, we’ll start nine consecutive days of stories about the candidates running for the 1st Congressional District. In this race six Democrats and two Republicans are vying to run in the general election to replace Democratic Rep. Tom Allen, who is challenging U.S. Sen. Susan Collins, a Republican.

The stories were written and reported by political writers Kevin Wack and Paul Carrier.

All of the candidates will be featured on Page A1 on a week day, in alphabetical order by party, with the six Democrats running Monday through Saturday, and two Republicans on May 19 & 20. Sandwiched in the middle, on Sunday, May 18, will be a look at voters’ concerns in the 1st District. The stories will also be archived online at www.pressherald.com as they're published in the paper.

Here’s what the schedule looks like:

DEMOCRATS
Monday: Michael Brennan
Tuesday: Adam Cote
Wednesday: Mark Lawrence
Thursday: Steve Meister
Friday: Chellie Pingree
Saturday: Ethan Strimling

May 18: A look at the issues concerning voters in the 1st Congressional District

REPUBLICANS
May 19: Dean Scontras
May 20: Charlie Summers

This may be too much inside baseball, but we’re developing a plan to change our beat structure.

Beats are the coverage areas to which our reporters are assigned. They can be geographic or focused on a subject, like public safety.

Our current beat structure is fairly traditional and similar to newsrooms around the country. Reporters are assigned to cover the major institutions – city hall, schools, courts, cops, state government, etc. We also have reporters who specialize in topics like health care, the arts, state government and the environment.

So why change? We must adapt to our audience, which is turning to the Web for breaking news. That means we need to be more aggressive about what we’re doing online. We also need to focus our staff on finding and reporting so-called “unique content” – stories of broad interest found only in the Press Herald or at pressherald.com. And we need to make both of these changes with fewer resources.

The question we’re asking now is: Are we covering the right things? What changes, if any, need to be made to our beat structure to meet the demands of a 24-hour newsroom? What new topics should we be covering? Are there stories to which we should pay less attention?

We’re hoping to answer these questions over the next couple of weeks. As always, if you have some constructive ideas along these lines, send ‘em along.

Hello, I’ve returned to the living after missing the past two weeks due to eye surgery.

In addition to getting a handle on what people are doing for today’s newspaper, I’m working with the staff to plan upcoming stories. Right now we’re putting together a list of story projects for 2008. Basically, these are in-depth or investigative stories that might take weeks or even months to prepare, like our recent series on suspended drivers.

We’re also planning stories to coincide with the 5th anniversary of the start of the war in Iraq, on March 19. Among the questions we’re exploring: What’s it been like for veterans to transition back to civilian life? Have their views of the war changed? How has the war affected the military’s recruitment efforts in Maine? How would each of the candidates for president approach the war if elected?

As always, I welcome your story suggestions.