Today marks the end of a chapter for this newspaper. It does not mark the end of the newspaper.

The Intelligencer Journal is one of the nation's oldest newspapers. Our lineage dates to 1794, when the Lancaster Journal began publication. Five years later, The Intelligencer, & Weekly Advertiser appeared. Although the two newspapers were combined into the Intelligencer & Journal in 1839, the newspaper continued to go through various incarnations. It subsequently became The Lancastrian, The Lancaster Daily Intelligencer, The Lancaster Morning Journal and The News Journal before becoming the morning Intelligencer Journal in 1928 when John Frederick and James Hale Steinman acquired the Lancaster New Era from the Block family.

The Lancaster Journal was the newspaper of record from 1799 to 1812 when Lancaster served as capital of Pennsylvania.

In 1803, the newspaper endorsed the federal government's decision to spend $15 million on a pet project — the Louisiana Purchase. In later years, it chronicled Napoleon's abdication, the battle of Gettysburg, Abraham Lincoln's assassination, the Wright brothers first flight, the sinking of the Titanic, a couple of world wars and man's first steps on the moon.

For the past 81 years, the two daily newspapers — the Intelligencer Journal and Lancaster New Era — have existed under a single ownership. During that time, they competed to provide readers with the latest and most complete information. It was a journalistic and business model that worked well for decades.

But the recession and the emergence of new information technologies and new advertising forums have forced news organizations to look at how they do business. Newspapers throughout the land have laid off thousands of employees. Highly regarded newspapers in Seattle and Denver have folded. In some locales, newspapers that compete with each other have developed cooperative agreements to share news stories.

The changes are not restricted to newspapers. TV networks and their affiliates have laid off hundreds of journalists. Some smaller television stations that rely heavily on national advertising have eliminated news operations altogether.

Lancaster remains a strong newspaper market. Circulation of the Intelligencer Journal has continued to climb steadily during the past decade.

For that, we thank our readers. Like them, we prefer thumbing through the pages of a newspaper with a cup of coffee in the morning. It's not just the lead stories that attract our attention, but the sidebars, the inside stories, the sports coverage and the features from word puzzles to Sudoku.

For the past 16 months, the Intelligencer Journal and Lancaster New Era have published a combined edition on Saturdays and holidays. That is the model we have chosen to adopt as we move forward.

The combined Intelligencer Journal/Lancaster New Era will have a larger staff, expanded coverage, more features and all-day operations. It will include the editorial voices of both newspapers. Our LancasterOnline Web site also will expand.

There is a price to be paid for this merger. More than two dozen journalists — many of whom have won state and regional awards — are being laid off. That has given those of us who remain a fresh perspective about workers who have lost jobs in this economy.

Editorially, the Intelligencer Journal has often been a voice of moderation in a conservative county. That will continue.

But at the same time, the Intelligencer Journal is not wedded to any political party or philosophy. We will continue to advocate for good government, good schools and keeping Lancaster a good place to live and work.

In sum, we remain democrats — with a small "d."