As a reporter, I battled the Las Vegas Sun in its heyday some 30 years ago. As an editor, I helped administer the Joint Operating Agreement 15 years ago that kept the Sun alive when it was officially declared "failed" and assumed the position of an afternoon newspaper. And today, as a publisher, I am helping it escape irrelevancy and return as a morning newspaper, albeit in a different form.

Am I crazy? Absolutely not.

What I am, first and always, is a newspaperman. I am also the CEO of a large media business, and, of course, I am a loyal, full-time Nevadan. I know that moving the Sun to the morning is a good thing.

Why?

Most importantly, it's good for readers. People will now get in one delivery two separate and distinct newspapers -- two viewpoints on the day's news and what it means. Diversity in the marketplace of ideas is always good for a thinking person in a free, democratic society.

Secondly, after free-falling into circulation irrelevancy, the Sun now gets a shot at the minds of more Las Vegans through the much wider circulation of the Review-Journal. This I fear not.

And finally, the Review-Journal, something like Sherlock Holmes finding his archenemy Moriarty, regains a competitor that, by comparison, highlights the R-J's best qualities.

Different views have value, even views I think are demonstrably wrongheaded. Just because the Review-Journal and the Sun will be delivered together in the morning, this change in form alters not one whit my drive to deliver the best possible newspaper to readers. I have lived and breathed the inky mist of the Review-Journal since 1976. I know the Review-Journal is, well, simply a superior newspaper organization. We are human. We do make mistakes. But our mistakes are honest ones.

I insist that above all else the editors and reporters at the Review-Journal make every effort to report the news, and what we think it means, in a truthful and balanced way. No holds barred. Friend or foe, conservative or liberal, our first and only obligation is to the reader. I couldn't care less how many parties I get (or don't get) invited to from members of the self-proclaimed "power" political elite.

If you don't believe me, or if you moved here in the past 15 years or so and have not seen much of the brand X newspaper, I invite you to read closely each morning. With the confidence of a coffee connoisseur, or, if you will, the CEO of Starbucks, I'm not afraid of anyone taking the Sun taste comparison test. In fact, I hope everyone reads both newspapers. In doing so, readers and the community are enriched.

Also, in the interest of full disclosure, I plainly and unashamedly tell you that the Review-Journal benefits financially from distributing the Sun in the morning. To their credit, the owners of the Sun were willing to make financial concessions in order to reach a larger audience with their views. But I assure you that financial considerations are absolutely ancillary. I would not deliver the Sun with the R-J -- not today, not ever -- if I didn't think it was also a good thing for our readers.

So, this morning, and every morning hereafter until the JOA ends on Dec. 31, 2040 (a Monday, by the way), the Sun will be delivered with the Review-Journal. Read both. Compare. Talk about the differences. Write us letters.

The Las Vegas Valley is a great place to live and work. And we are in it together as a people and, now, as two morning newspapers. It's going to be fun. I promise you.

SHERMAN R. FREDERICK

REVIEW-JOURNAL PUBLISHER

PRESIDENT AND CEO

STEPHENS MEDIA GROUP

P.S.: The thought occurs that many readers of the R-J and the Sun may want to know whether this change will result in a subscription increase. The answer is "no." We do not anticipate any increase as a result of this change.