The newspaper industry is experiencing what many are calling the "perfect storm" —- rising fuel and paper costs, declining advertising budgets, competition from the Internet. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution is working hard to transform itself to meet those challenges.

With time-starved readers demanding a simplified and more easily navigable newspaper —- and with newsprint costs soaring —- we have decided to discontinue the Sunday @issue section.

Most of its popular features, however, will continue to appear in other parts of the newspaper. AJC columnists Cynthia Tucker and Jim Wooten will still run on Sundays, as will syndicated writers such as George Will and Thomas Friedman.

The Sunday opinion pages will be redesigned, with an emphasis on the in-depth exploration of important issues and a diversity of views across the ideological spectrum.

Beginning Sunday, Aug. 17, those newly constituted pages will appear at the end of the main news, or A, section of the newspaper.

The daily opinion pages will be redesigned, as well, offering two pages of commentary daily —- the norm across the newspaper industry. You'll find many familiar AJC columnists on those pages, as well as popular syndicated voices such as Leonard Pitts and Charles Krauthammer. You will also continue to see well-informed and thoughtful institutional editorials on critical issues.

We'll be offering new features, too. On Saturdays, we'll publish a Community Voices page focusing on county and city issues in the AJC's core readership area. Regular contributors will include AJC Gwinnett columnist Rick Badie.

As always, the AJC's opinion pages will foster a lively but civil debate on topics important to residents of metro Atlanta, respecting the broad array of voices across the political spectrum. Whether you post your thoughts online or write traditional letters to the editor, we want to hear from you. Take a look at the new pages and let us know what you think.

—- Cynthia Tucker, Editorial page editor

—- Jim Wooten, Associate editorial page editor

 signatures of Cynthia Tucker and Jim Wooten, and their hand-written job titles