Friday is my last day at The News Tribune. And with my transition, this blog will be retired.

Online in the South Sound launched in March 2006. I appreciate those who have visited and contributed to this community and will miss writing here. Honestly, though, it's always grated on me that I wasn't able to give it more time and attention.

I am leaving my position at The News Tribune to pursue other opportunities. I will be focusing my attention on my Journalism 2.0 activities, including more speaking and consulting and also writing an updated version to my book. Next week, for example, I'm traveling to Europe to speak at conferences in Portugal and Denmark.

I am also leading a startup company called Serra Media that is building interactive applications and digital platforms for local publishers. I like to think it's a way for me to do what I've been doing these past nine years running online news sites - specifically the innovation and experimentation - but do it for many web sites instead of just one.

I will continue to blog and Twitter and remain active in the South Sound technology scene. I will also always be a friend to The News Tribune and on Friday will blog here about how I'm leaving the best job I've ever had.

The Melon Online, a local web effort I wrote about previously which started as a news and politics talk radio show, has a new look. And a nice one at that.

With a new look comes an expanded vision for the site, judging by the content and categories on its homepage. In addition to news and politics you can now find health, science, arts and radio and visual content.

Sitecrafting, which developed many of the area's best web sites, is again offering Gear Grants to local nonprofits. The deadline to apply is this Friday, Oct. 24. If you're not ready this time, sit tight. The company accepts application each quarter.

The sometimes tumultuous town of Ruston has a new site called Free Ruston. It's essentially a message board where users can discuss. Not much activity there yet, but it's brand new.

A year ago, I was writing about new web sites for Green Halloween, the Tacoma Gnome, Let's Improve Transportation and Charles Wright's blog. Looks like the Green Halloween and Charles Wright blog are going strong. The other two ... not so much.

Andrew Fry asks about the fate of newspapers in his latest post. And gives me fair warning that he'll be putting me on the spot with this question when I visit his class in a couple weeks.

LostRemote shows us how hyperlocal blogs are building audience and building a sustainable business in Seattle. And makes a key point that I’ve been echoing recently: thousands of out-of-work newspaper journalists could change the game.

Successful local start-up news sites are usually staffed with experience in journalism and online media. Now that thousands more newspaper journalists don’t have a day job, it figures that a number of them will sign up for a Wordpress account and look to fill a niche in their community for local news and information.

What will that mean for the newspaper, especially a mid-sized daily like the TNT? Not much, since hyperlocal blogs that focus on neighborhood-level news will be covering ground the newspaper hasn't focused on in years.

The newspapers' challenge is to ramp up its online business while continuing to produce a print product that brings home most of the bacon. So cuts will continue, until a level is found that is sustainable while maintaining profits. But there will be holes to fill (like the real estate blog Fry referred to) while executives change the oil on this car as it drives down the freeway.

Phil Meyer argued recently that the newspaper of the future should be smaller and targeted to the elite. I'm not sure if that's the right direction for a paper like the Tribune, but the product and service will continue to change as news and information adapt to this new ecosystem called the digital age.

Unfortunately we are saying goodbye to The Bus Stops Here, our local blog focusing on transportation news and policy in the region. Andrew Austin, who came to us a year ago and volunteered to write the blog, did a bang-up job covering that topic for us in the margins of his time.

Those margins have grown slimmer over the months, however, and Andrew doesn't have time to keep it going. So we'll close it down and wish him well.

Thanks, Andrew, for contributing to our community.

You've heard about Twitter by now and may still be wondering "what's the point?" But tonight will be an interesting time to use the service, both locally and nationally.

True, it takes a while to get your head around how this technology improves communication beyond email and blog posts. But, like most of the best things on the web, it's about the community.

The News Tribune's main Twitter account has 135 followers and our new sports account has about 30. That seems like a pretty small number compared to the 100,000-plus households we deliver a newspaper every day, but Twitter is less about publishing and more about connecting.

And it's perfect for mobile.

Followers use "hash marks" - namely a @ or # plus the Twitter account name - to reply to specific Twitterers they follow. This allows direct contact between two people and is the core of what makes Twitter different.

I found more than 230 people signed up for Twitter who list Tacoma, WA as their location. Still, not a lot of people. But look at all the technology development happening around Twitter.

So we’re now using Twitter to send alerts with local high school football game updates to your mobile device. Just sign up for the Twitter service and follow us at twitter.com/tntsports. Or, if you're at a computer tonight, follow along online at the same URL.

And then there's that campaign thing going on. It will be entertaining - or maddening - to watch the global Twitterstream during the presidential debate tonight. Follow along here: http://election.twitter.com/

While The News Tribune has had our share of comings and goings in recent months (I'm still around part-time, in case you're wondering), the Seattle newspapers collectively lost three of the best bloggers in the Puget Sound this month.

John Cook and Todd Bishop are leaving the P-I to start new technology ventures at the Puget Sound Business Journal. This is good news for tech info consumers since Cook and Bishop formed what Lost Remote called the "Techcrunch of Seattle" with their P-I blogs on venture capital and Microsoft.

David Postman, the Seattle Times' political blogger, left the paper to join Paul Allen's Vulcan in media relations.

In case you missed it, football season is back and with it brings loads of page views to our web site for coverage of the Seahawks (and Huskies, Cougars and high schools). Just check out the top 10 stories from last month to see how dominant this topic is on our web site.

As I've noted before, our Seahawks audience is national, meaning those stories have a decided advantage over most of our other content (not many people in Buffalo, N.Y. wondering about potholes in Tacoma, for example.)

Most popular multimedia:

Most popular blogs:

1. Seahawks Insider
2. Lights & Sirens
3. Political Buzz
4. Huskies Insider
5. Mariners Insider
6. Biz Buzz
7. TNT Diner
8. Bring the Noise
9. Prep Blog
10. Word on the street
11. Open House
12. Adventure Guys
13. FOB Tacoma
14. Inside the Editorial Page
15. Online in the South Sound

The Louis L'Amour Project is a new blog written by a Tacoman named Chris Jones who shares his passion for classic Western tales. He sent me a note about his blog recently so I wanted to take a look.

It's well-done, especially if you read Louis L'Amour books (which I don't). The ratings in spurs (up to 5) is a nice touch and the blog is sprinkled with enough images to make it visually interesting.

No doubt Chris is a legitimate L'Amour fan. He even made a Mii of the now deceased author. Even though I'm not a L'Amour fan, it's good to see the legacy of one of the world's most popular writers preserved in the digital age.

Yesterday evening, as I was finally able to steal a few moments and read the Sunday papers (a simple pleasure, even for us digital types) I was suprised and impressed to see a "Tacoma, Wash." dateline on the cover of the New York Times Business section.

A story featuring Alan Collinge, a self-described "complaint box" for the student-loan industry, details the struggle for many people to pay off their student loans. Collinge runs a Web site called StudentLoanJustice.org out of his "spartan apartment," according the Times story, and has been featured in newspapers and "60 Minutes."

This morning, the story is No. 7 on the Most Popular list at the Times' site.

Saw this link on CNN.com's homepage this morning ...

KIRO: Bikini barista throws hot water on flasher

I thought, could that be our KIRO, news partner of the News Tribune? And, if so, could that be a South Sound bikini barista?

Yes, on both counts.

That's the message from the state DOT office with regard to a people's choice award for the new Narrows Bridge. If you're a fan of the new bridge, cast your vote and help it receive national recognition here. (Smack talk: That overpass in Kansas isn't even in same league!)

According to Melanie Coon, Public Information Program Manager, the winning state receives "a substantial cash award to donate to a local or regional community service project of its choice."

The new bridge is also one of 10 transportation projects in the running for the America’s Transportation Award, "reflecting the best in management and innovation by the American Association of State Highway Transportation officials (AASHTO)."

Crosscut published the third of its 3-part series on political blogs today, focusing on mainstream media blogs. Blogs from the Tri-City Herald, Seattle Times and Oregonian are featured (while our Political Buzz gets an "honorable mention" of sorts) along with this lead-in:

Today, a newspaper without a posse of blogs is so passé. The New York Times currently hosts more than 70 blogs, while the Seattle Post-Intelligencer has more than 29 staff-written blogs and dozens of reader blogs. The Tri-City Herald has 12, the Everett Herald has 17, The Seattle Times has 20, and The Oregonian has more than 50 blogs.

Overkill? Never heard of it.

While the print media might have been late to the blogosphere's party, there's a handful of local media-backed blogs making a splash in state politics.

In case you're wondering, we have about 30 staff blogs at the TNT, although the number fluctuates as some come and go (any idea what we should do with our Sonics blog?)

The first two parts of the Crosscut series focused the top independent political blogs and a roundup of the rest.