Editor's Note

MinnPost.com is a news venture providing high-quality journalism for people everywhere who care about Minnesota.

If this is your first visit to the site, here are a few points that we hope will enhance your experience:

At 11 a.m. each weekday, MinnPost.com will publish on the site:

· Two major stories, written by our outstanding cast of contributing journalists. Our aim is to tell you something you don't already know, and have you come away feeling: That's worth knowing.

· A world/nation perspective piece, under the label MinnPost.World

· A commentary piece by someone other than a MinnPost journalist.

· Pieces selected by our editors from the published work of content partners, including the University of Minnesota, the Walker Art Center, the Minnesota Historical Society, Minnesota Monitor and others.

· Links to carefully selected material not on our website, including an editors' pick of news of interest to Minnesotans that was published someplace besides MinnPost.com, a Website of the Day, and a Best of the Blogs link from the Community Voices section.

All day long, starting in the early morning, MinnPost.com will publish Current Posts, which have the informality of blogs but are always based on original reporting by our journalists. These Posts refresh throughout the day, and may include a few featured from the day before. In general, each new post goes to the top of the column. And you can always find older posts by clicking on Posts in the navigation bar across the top of the page, or by searching under author or topic in our Search box, located at the upper-right corner of each page.

Whenever you click on a story on the homepage, you'll be taken to its own story page, which could include related content, such as a video.

Every story page offers you the opportunity to comment on that story. You can read published comments by clicking on Comments below the story. To post a comment, you need to register as a MinnPost.com commenter, agree to abide by our rules, and put your real name on your comment. MinnPost.com moderates comments, which means they will not be posted until approved.

If you want to see all recent stories classified by their section, click on the appropriate link in the navigation bar at the top of the page, such as Region or Arts. Each story appears in one section. If, on the other hand, you have a more specific search in mind, such as finding all stories about the governor or about your organization, our Search function will help you find that, too.

In the upper-left corner of the homepage and many other pages, you'll find an image of the most recent edition of MinnPost in Print. You can click to download it, either in color or black and white, and print it out, giving you an eight-page daily newspaper that contains the best of MinnPost.com's content, in a newspaper format. You can also pick up a copy of MinnPost in Print at selected locations over the lunch hour, primarily in downtown Minneapolis and downtown St. Paul, and at the University of Minnesota, the Capitol, and at various locations along 494 between Richfield and Edina.

MinnPost is for people seriously interested in news, but we plan to have fun, too. For starters, Al Sicherman will be running a contest called Verse or Worse -- once every two weeks, he'll announce a subject of current interest and a form (limerick, caption, etc.) and invite you to submit your most creative entries. Al will publish his choice of finalists, and readers will vote for the winner, who will get a MinnPost T-shirt, or worse.

If you like what you see at MinnPost.com or MinnPost in Print, please become a member by donating. MinnPost is a nonprofit that has filed with the IRS for 501(c)(3) status, which would make contributions tax-deductible. We believe that high-quality journalism is not just a consumer good; it's a community asset that contributes to the health of our democracy and the quality of our lives. Click on Donate to learn how to join the more than 350 people who became MinnPost members before launch. And to see who those donors are, click here.

MinnPost's goal is to develop a sustainable business model that will support high-quality journalism for this community; that model also depends on selling sponsorships and advertising. If you are interested in advertising in MinnPost.com or MinnPost in Print, contact Sally Waterman at 612-455-6953 or swaterman [at] minnpost [dot] com for more information. For corporate sponsorship, contact Lynn Benson, 651-433-8011 or lbenson [at] minnpost [dot] com.

Launching a new website and a whole new enterprise at the same time is a daunting task, especially when expectations about MinnPost have been running so high. We are sure there will be glitches. Please help us by notifying us about what isn't working right or what you would like to see us do differently -- email us at feedback [at] minnpost [dot] com. If you have a news tip, email tips [at] minnpost [dot] com.

With your help and support, we aim to keep getting better, and to become a long-term contributor to the quality of journalism, and therefore the quality of life, for all Minnesotans, wherever they live.